Overweight issues

[Trekhawk]

I may be slow, but that just means I see more!

MomOnBike - I love that line.

Trek-Im snail slow-Hawk

PS Glad to hear you ladies are all out there giving it your best. You are inspiring.

[Geonz]

The guys I learned to ride with said as pacelines would pass us, "What's with these guys that just want to get it over with as fast as they can? Don't they *like* riding?"

[cyclingnewbie]

I'm glad to hear that there are heavier women out riding. I frequently feel like I must be the fattest person in the world on a bike. And I'm very proud of all of you for getting out there, even though you aren't a size Tiny. Ride on, ladies!!

[withm]

BTW, I've signed up for a Womantours trip in May--it's just the short, easy, 4-day one, but it IS four days of cycling, so I've started training my out-of-shape self for it. See my training progress on my blog: Works in Progress
It's not that I'm so self-centered I think everyone should care about wonderful me and my training schedule--just that someone who reads might have some words of wisdom to share. So if you do...share away.

I saw your blog and not sure if your 4 day trip is in Missouri or in Maryland? If Maryland - is it the 4 days of Cycle Across Maryland in July? CAM? I am doing that ride, and I think others from this board will be there too. It would be fun if we could all get together sometime during that ride.

Martha

[mmelindas]

Pardon me while I have a big juicy chunk of brownie as I am writing this... (NOT!) yeah, I would be overjoyed to lose ten lbs too! I figure it's like this: I didn't get this way overnight, so it's not going away overnight either!

We win the war against obesity not one pound at a time, but one cookie, one bike ride, any one minute of any exercise we can cajol our bods into...so all is a victory if we do anything at all remotely resembling exercise, not eating fattening foods! (This doesn't count lifting a piece of poundcake five times up to your yap!)

I agree, even with my advanced arthritis, that exercise = less pain if done right. I can't stand for long periods of time nor walk far (back probls) but I can ride my bike and a stationary bike at the gym, and do other types of exercise. I am itching to get to it!! It's just going to be a lonnnnnnnnngg time before I see results and meantime...that brownie is calling me.

So, I've found websites, recipes and the means to make my tempting favorites LESS fattening, and then I can enjoy a little now and then...but changing my attitude about food worked best for me in the past...I found that I liked sweets LESS when I didn't eat them for a while, like for a month, and had fat free yogurts instead. Pretty soon, I wasn't craving sweets at all... and the weight came off faster. For me, oatmeal and raisens for breakfast held off the hungries until after work (with yogurt, an apple and a piece of bran bread at lunch) then I had a homemade veggie tomato soup and yogurt and salad in the evenings...

The problem now is that I have to cook for MEN.....and they don't like that sort of girly diet stuff..... If I have to fix one more fattening thing for a man (even cutie DH and beloved DS) I will hit somebody with a skillet!

Being poor helps though.... it tends to let you buy less of the junk food and more of the survival stuff. So maybe since DH quit his job and doesn't really have to work anyway, that we'll eat healthier...

I am so excited about losing weight that I think I will celebrate with another brownie! Okay, don't kill me, I was joking....

....and I am OBESE, they don't make a scale that will weigh me except for the doctor's office kind...now how embarassing is that?

Okay, I repent, I repent.. I will get on my bike and work hard to lose that weight and I will start....tomorrow...it's raining here!

[Barb]

I am joining the band wagon. I could lose 60 lbs easy. Well not easy, it's hard, very hard. I love sweets. My skinny skinny man loves sweets and eats a TON. It's hard to gage how much I east when he can devore a roast on his own! I am up to 45 miles a week on my bike. The long rides make me really hungry though. Keep up the work, ladies. Healthy old age is the best revenge!

[mmelindas]

....and all you other fatbottomed gals who need to lose weight! I am certainly probably, most likely, ABSOLUTELY to have the most weight yet to lose:

How does losing 150 lbs sound? Maybe I am ambitious, but I hope to do it. (lost 90 five years ago but have gained almost all back.... ) Biking is certainly the answer. Congrats and Waytogo gals for all of us who are trying to be better me's!!

I have a hubby who can eat a horse but preferably a SUGAR coated horse..he's got a sweet tooth to kill a pacheyderm.... I make him go to Carls Jr to have his fattening chocolate malts -- by himself!!

But, as you can see, candy bars are my downfall...I love Midnight Milky Ways...... ahhhhhhhhhh....so bad!

[Bad JuJu]

I saw your blog and not sure if your 4 day trip is in Missouri or in Maryland? If Maryland - is it the 4 days of Cycle Across Maryland in July? CAM? I am doing that ride, and I think others from this board will be there too. It would be fun if we could all get together sometime during that ride.

Martha

Oh, Martha that would be so cool. But no, my tour is the Terry Tour of Maryland, on the eastern shore. You guys have a great time on the CAM though. Maybe next year!

[Popoki_Nui]

Geez....I started today feeling pretty good. Spring is here....my favourite clothing store has a sale on...things were looking good. Trying on some nice summer tops....and there in the dressing room was a fat old woman staring at me. Oh wait.....it's a mirror...and that fat old woman is me. What is it about those mirrors anyway?? I know I have more work to do, but haven't those thousands of kilometers on my bikes done anything? I bought a couple of extra-baggy tops and scurried home, embarassed. So much for feeling good....
~Sherry.

[mmelindas]

Mirrors in department stores are designed by evil men.....men who want you to buy diet products, join health clubs, buy larger clothes (and when you get home and in few weeks, realize they are too big, go back and buy smaller ones....)
... these mirrors are designed and funded by shrinks, exercise gurus, diet pill manufactures, pharmeceutical salesmen and bariatric surgeons...all designed to make us LOOK FAT and them to get rich!

It's only a theory, but it works for me....I NEVER believe those fat old ladies I always see glaring back at me with saddlebag butts, drooping boobies and jelly rolls for middles...it's all a plot, an EVIL plot.....gahaggagagagaaaaaaaa!

[Ellen 06]

I'm glad I stumbled on this forum. I just bought a bike saturday and I have 104 pounds to lose.

I can't ride a regular bike, leaning on the handlebars wrecks havoc on my wrist and I had given up riding as a possible source of exercise. Then I wandered past a bike shop the other day, saw a poster for a 'flat foot' bike and went for a test ride. I rode right out with a new Townie bike. No pain in my wrist at all!

I've been riding to work, about 6 miles each way, with a mile long hill just before home-currently I have to get off and walk the last bit.

So am I crazy to think I could get in shape in time to go on the Red Riding Hood 38 mile ride in Cache Valley Utah in just over a month? The description says mostly flat, no big hills. That's right in my backyard.

[uforgot]

Crazy??? I don't think so. I think it's terrific, and I think you should go for it! After all, I think starting out with that commute is impressive. Keep it up and let us know how it's going!

[Tuckervill]

Hey, did you shoot that avatar yourself?

Becuase I think I've seen that piece of art on a highway near Fayetteville, AR.

Karen

[tamara_69]

So am I crazy to think I could get in shape in time to go on the Red Riding Hood 38 mile ride in Cache Valley Utah in just over a month? The description says mostly flat, no big hills. That's right in my backyard.

What color is your Townie? I see them advertised in Bicycling all the time, and think they are just darling! I don't know what health issues you have, of course, but I think you could do the LRRH. It's well-supported, there will be lots of really nice people there, and it's flat! It should be loads of fun. Where are you? My husband is from Cache Valley, and one of these years, I'll get down there for that ride!

[Ellen 06]

I bought the Townie model 7 D, it's blue.

I live in Providence on the bench, so no matter where I go it's a steep ride home.

I think I'll take the bike in the car this weekend to a central point in the valley and do some riding. Someone mentioned there might be a book of rides, with milage and grade information, I'll stop by the bike shop and see if that is so.

The more I think about it, the more I want to do the LRRH, it would be silly to have such an event so close by and not take advantage of it.

Ellen