Looking for Newbies with a large amt of weight to lose..

[Livin the Dream]

Wow, bikerchick, what an inspiration your brother is! And once again, three more cheers for cycling, a sport that doesn't require participants to wear size 2's!

[indigoiis]

I don't know if any of you have checked out this site:

www.littlechanges.com

In January of this year, this woman and her husband embarked on a round-the-country (literally) bike tour, with trailers, on a limited budget, to prove that little changes can make a big difference. Her starting weight was 325 pounds or so. They are incredibly inspiring. Although I don't have any weight to lose, I feel like, if she can do 35 miles a day with a trailer, then dang if I can't do 45 minutes a day.

[robinmary]

I use to ride religiously until I was pregnant with my son 14 years ago and became asthmatic. Since then I may go for a few short rides each summer but had not tried to be regular about commiting to ride like I was. My husband was also an avid rider when we first met and had let his riding drift off until last summer. Last summer he began training again and rode a century for cancer research. This summer he has done the same.

After a long talk one night he told me that there was no reason I shouldn't be out there. He knows how much I loved to ride. He was right. So I've started to ride again. I found team estrogen in a search to find a pair of shorts that fit. I have nearly 50 pounds to lose, but I love being on my bike and my legs have held for my rides (shorter for now but I'm building up). I live in VT so there is no way to avoid hills and I am managing my asthma. Reading your posts makes me feel like I can check in here from time to time and hear from others who are working toward fitness with there love to ride. Thanks for sending the story of Pricilla. Small steps is the way to go.

Robin

[LoriO]

Wow, this thread is great! I decided to start biking about 2 years ago for weight loss and health reasons (high blood pressure, etc). Hubby bought me a decent hybrid bike for my birthday (a Raleigh C200) and I started biking some. I am not sure how much I weighed because I refused to get on a scale at first but I would guess around 250 and wearing about a size 20.

The first thing I discovered is that there is almost NO flat area where I live. Everything is hills so I got discouraged at first. Some of the hills around here are really tough!! I still biked occasionally and between the bike, the gym and changing my diet I lost about 25-30 pounds.

Then last year I started having really bad knee troubles. I ended up not being able to do anything from November through about February with knee surgery the end of December. Once the physical therapist ok'd me working out again I set up my bike on the trainer in the garage (someone else made the comment about thank god for MP3 players...how true!!!) and started really biking there.

When the weather finally warmed up, I decided to hit the road again. Wow, all that time on the trainer really paid off. Suddenly, the hills all seemed so much easier!!! I also have picked up a rack for my car so I can go other places and get a break from the hills.

I am now down to about 217 after a long weight plateau at 220. I think the muscle I was adding was counter balancing the fat loss but I was still seeing a difference in clothes so that at least kept me motivated. I am now down to a size 16. YEAH!!!

I still have about another 40 to go but it is slowly happening! I am starting to feel so much better about how I feel and my blood pressure has improved dramatically! My DR even took me off one of the meds he had me on. WHOO HOOOO!!!!!

This is great hearing everyones elses stories. This is great motivation to keep it going!

[LoriO]

Robin, where in VT are you? I'm in CT but Hubby and I often vacation up there. Maybe we can meet up someday for a ride together!

I went to school in Northfield and lived in Randolph for awhile, and worked down in Bethel!!!