244 - The fantastic year is ending with a bang

With only three weeks to go until the end of the calendar year, I've been contemplating what has happened in the past 12 months and what the future has in store for me. I'm excited! Usually, by now, I have already sent out my annual Christmas cards with their 'round-robin' letters. My friends all know how much I love to send (and receive - hint!) letters and cards in the mail. Anyway, it truly has been a fantastic year, and the best is yet to come!

January started out with me weighing 336 pounds (152.5 kg). This morning:

243.8 lbs (110.6 kg)

243.8 pounds, 92 lbs lighter in twelve months. Losing nearly eight pounds a month on average is a good, healthy amount. 

I was still living in Helena at the time (in January 2016), still working for the Dept of Public Health and Human Service in a job that had me practically tied to a desk all day answering a phone. I was walking the ⅔ mile each way to work (a 100 foot elevation difference so, yes, it was uphill both ways 😜), including in the middle of winter with all its snow and ice (and I can honestly say, I never missed a single day because of the weather). At this point I hadn't been riding my bike, which was still stored in my hall closet. I also hadn't substantially started hiking yet, although I had started to make plans to go to southern Oregon and see Crater Lake as part of a 100-mile PCT hike that was scheduled for the end of May. 

In July I had decided that I was financially stable enough to be able to leave my job and move to my "spiritual home" (where I'm actually living now) of Missoula, MT. There was a short 'blip' when I was in Sidney (eastern Montana) for a few weeks. My close friends know the details of that little escapade (temporary insanity? 😵) Anyway, I moved to the Garden City at the beginning of November and have been able to get back on my program (such that there is one - low carb diet and more exercise, basically) with great results. I've been riding my now-heavily-accessorized bike a lot (weather permitting), and walking more than ever before. 

So, next year I'm looking forward to finally reaching my final target - 178 lbs or (80.7 kg) which, for a 5' 10" guy (1.78 m) is still a BMI of 25.5 - so, technically, still overweight. I should be there by, say, mid-July. But, you know what? If it takes me until August, or September, or even December, I'm not that bothered. It's all a heck of a lot better than 405 lbs (June 2015) or 428 lbs (June 2014)!! Of course, there's the question of what to do about the 20 pounds of excess, flapping skin that will be hanging off me all over the place. "Surgery!" (I imagined myself saying that in a ringing, singing voice).

I still have some objectives to meet. I still want to find a place to do some boxing to help develop my upper body musculature. I still want to find a place to do T'ai Chi to help with the physical and mental/spiritual balance. I still want to do a long-distance bicycle ride (Portland, Oregon, is still looking attractive as either the destination or the starting point for that little tour). I really want to start dancing again. I have such fond memories of my daughter and I going to some contra dances in Helena, but that was six and seven years ago! I know that those things are all available here in Missoula, it's just a question of time and money, and making it a big enough priority. 

If you're in Missoula and you're interested in contra dancing, the Missoula Folklore Society has dances twice a month (first and third Saturday) from October through May (http://www.missoulafolk.org). Maybe I'll see you there? Oh, and Sara Bareilles? I'm still waiting for your phone call to ask me to be in a future music video of yours ("Brave" was brilliant! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4.) 

And, I haven't given up on wanting to complete my PCT hike, or climbing Mount Hood ("Go BIG or go home!", right?) I have unfinished business to take care of in Oregon, and I'm not going to let it beat me! 

I still want to expand my répertoire of mostly plant-based (but not exclusively vegetarian) recipes and learn some new cooking styles and techniques. I still want to learn and practise my own food growing, canning and preserving. Not that I want to be all "prepper" self-sufficient, but a little better preparedness doesn't hurt (interestingly, even after living in the US for 20 years now, I've still never fired - much less held - a gun. I get that question from my English friends all the time). 

In the short term, I want to start enjoying the winter (I never imagined that THOSE words would ever come out of my mouth!) I want to try snowshoeing (or cross country skiing, maybe). 

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom-of-night
stays this man from going outside."

2017 is going to be another fantastic year. If I can take some friends with me, old ones or new ones, it'll be that much better. If I can leverage the new-found knowledge and experience of healthy eating and exercise and weight-loss, and get myself a better job, or even just use it to HELP other people, I'll be delighted. 

Enjoying my cycling

Before I get on to the story about cycling, I came across an interesting article in "Outside" magazine called The Definitive Superfood Ranking (http://www.outsideonline.com/2128816/definitive-superfood-ranking). I'm please to say that I love the top 15 out of 21 items mentioned, including;

• Blueberries
• Turmeric
• Salmon
• Red wine, and 
• Dark Chocolate (> 70% cacao)

Shame they didn't mention hot pepper sauce. 

The real purpose of looking at Outside magazine was to read their list of Top 10 Bike Towns (http://www.outsideonline.com/1899901/top-10-outside-bike-towns) from 2012, which incuded my new home town of Missoula at number 5, and a former home town of mine, Chico, California, at number 10. 

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) maintains a list of Bicycle Friendly Communities (http://www.bikeleague.org/bfa/awards#community), in which Missoula was awarded the Gold level in 2016 (up from their Silver award the previous year). Even Helena got a Bronze award. 

As well as feeling safer on the (predominantly flat) roads here, I also took a minute to register my bike with the National Bike Registry (https://www.nationalbikeregistry.com). Since 1984, the National Bike Registry has been working with local law enforcement agencies to return stolen bikes to their rightful owners. A bike registered with NBR can be identified by police and returned to you instead of being sold at an auction. The city of Missoula also has their own program. The Missoula Bicycle / Pedestrian Office offers bicycle registration as a free online service (at http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/1992/Bike-Registration-Recovery). Registration makes it easier to identify and return stolen bicycles to their rightful owners, and (eerily) help identify people, especially children, in the event of a crash. 

If you could see me, in my bright yellow and reflective high visibility helmet and gear, and head and tail lamps (!!!!) you'd be astonished if anyone ever hits me. They certainly wouldn't be able to say that they didn't see me! I'll post a photo soon. 

At this point I have to say Thank You to Sandy (and Debbie) for the bike that I have (an older model Diamondback Sorrento recreational mountain bike - http://www.diamondback.com/shop/bikes/mountain/sport/recreational/sorrento-27-5), and for the expensive tune-up that it had a few years ago. Yes, the bike hung/sat idle for a couple of years or more, but it gets used a lot these days, and it's performing like a champion. I'm adding a Topeak Explorer rack (https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/mtb-&-700c-touring-racks/916-uni-explorer-(non-disc)) with trunk bag to the back, so that I can carry more "stuff" safely. 

Losing inches, not pounds, for now

It's been more than three weeks since I last blogged about my progress, and tomorrow it will be two weeks since I moved to Sidney, MT. In some ways it feels like I've been here longer than that - it's been so busy.

I'm still hovering around the mid-270s pound mark, the same as two weeks ago. The big change that I've noticed is that my new pants (trousers) are fitting better than when I bought them seven weeks ago.

In terms of diet and exercise, I know I'm burning way more energy now than I ever did before. I'm working two jobs at the moment - both requiring a lot more physical exercise than I've been used to for a few years. At the moment, I don't have an accurate way to capture all the daily steps, but I'll estimate that I'm easily exceeding 12,000 steps a day at the grocery store, and my newspaper delivery route easily adds 8,000 steps to the tally. I'm also riding my bike half a dozen times a week, which is good too. I know I'm eating a lot more than I used to, and that a greater proportion of what I eat is carbohydrates. I'm trying really hard to stick to salads and green vegetables.

277 - Fourth time up Mount Helena

When I was at the State employee health center in Helena recently, I was given two objectives to meet before I leave town: one was to climb Mount Helena two more times. The other was to walk 80,000+ steps in a week. I was close to the latter goal a couple of times, reaching 75,150 and 76,805 steps two and three weeks ago. This week, I'll likely reach 70,000 again. So, now I have just two more weeks to try to reach my target, which is equivalent to walking about 40 miles in seven days. Since I'll be packing for my house move, the scope for walking will be more limited, but I'll give it my best shot.

The former objective has been met!

Fourth time up Mount Helena in four months

So now, after 19¾ years of having NEVER climbed to the summit (Trailhead Elevation:  4,350 feet; Top Elevation: 5,460 feet), I've conquered it four times in twelve weeks (once each in June, July, August and September). In Richland County (Sidney, MT), where I'm moving to, the peak elevation is about 2,950 feet, located about 40 miles west of Sidney on the Richland/Dawson county boundary. When people say it has no mountains, they're not kidding! So, my new pursuit will be bicycle riding. Of course, we're approaching the snowy winter season, so it won't always be practical, but I'll do what I have to in order to get my leg muscles attuned. I still want to do a long-distance ride some day.

Continuing the good news, this morning's weigh-in gave a new low: 276.6 lbs.

I'm still very much alive

Have I really only posted one blog post in the past month? What's happening? Well, dear reader, it's the plan coming to fruition! I'm spending more time doing the things that are important, and less time in front of my computer(s). About two months ago (maybe ten weeks now), I disconnected my home Internet. For a guy who works with technology (more on that in a moment) that was a radical step. Suddenly, there was nothing for my Chromebook and my laptop and my two Raspberry Pis and my Amazon Echo ("Alexa, I love you!") and my cloud-connected printer and my music and file server to connect to. So I turned most of them off and packed them away. "You're fired!"

An unintended consequence was that my power bill was $30 lower than normal last month!

I've been able to get back into my reading and writing hobbies. I've started watercolor painting again. I'm beginning to get a life back, and it feels great.

I'm sad that the darker (longer) nights are returning. Whereas it used to be light until almost 10 pm (22:00) here, it's now dark before 9 pm (21:00). I guess I won't have to feel odd any more that I'm going to bed while it's still light outside, huh?

I recently acquired a proper, powerful headlight for my bike. It's just annoying that people are so untrustworthy that I have to remove my bicycle pump and tools and lights every time I leave my bike in public. Nobody has stolen the seat yet, but I'm sure that'll happen one of these days too.

284.6 lb

I did hit a new low weight recently, 284.2 lbs (although the photo was from four days earlier, when I was 284.6 lbs). I've been slowly adding back more carbs to my diet as I attempt to increase the amount of fiber. It's a tricky balance - too much fiber/carbs and the weight loss stops or reverses, too little and I'm eating lettuce ten times a week :(

I've seen some good blood pressure readings recently. After months of 140/95 or thereabouts, my last few readings have all been around 110/65, with my resting pulse rate down to 64 as well.

I made another successful summit of Mount Helena last weekend.

Chris atop Mount Helena - July 30th, 2016

I got up super early, walked the two miles from my apartment to the foot of the mountain in the dark (with a head lamp), then climbed up the 1906 Trail and down the Powerline Trail (hard work on the thighs) before the hot sun came up.

This coming weekend I'm going to attempt Mount Sentinel ("the M") in Missoula. I've been contemplating moving there some time. Maybe the time is now? Maybe it's next spring? Perhaps it won't happen. I don't know yet.

There's more to report, but it'll have to wait until another time.

Cycling may lower your risk of Type 2 Diabetes

My new bicycle helmet should be here later this week, and the lock to secure it. Then I'll be riding around town more often myself. In the meantime, here was some good news about bike riding:

Cycling rather than driving may help lower the risk for type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. Research from the University of Southern Denmark showed that people who cycle to work or regularly cycle for recreation were less likely to get type 2 diabetes, even for those who had taken up the sport late in life.

The study involved over 50,000 Danish men and women between the ages of 50 and 65. The researchers evaluated the participants’ cycling activities and found that those who biked regularly were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. The more the participants cycled, the lower their risk for the disease became, the study said. 

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002076

More progress, and new activities

Thinking about my previous blog post (http://blog.ergoob.org/2016/06/priorities-for-rest-of-2016.html), and some of the things needed to make those new priorities a reality, I started by clearing my bed from my bedroom, so that now I have a dedicated "home gym" area for my boxing and Tai Chi. The bed frame is in the hall closet, and I'm sleeping on an extra mattress now in the spare bedroom, which makes me feel like the "Princess and the pea".

BOB

A large mirror will be installed on one wall for the shadow boxing (and for checking myself out - what with having a sexy new figure and all!) My ceiling isn't built to hold an 80 lb canvas heavy bag for punching, so I'm going to acquire a "BOB" (Body Opponent Bag) that sits on the floor. You fill the base with water and/or sand (about 250 lbs of sand, apparently).

The reason for converting my main bedroom is that I don't have neighbors below that room (it's the laundry room underneath me), so I won't disturb anyone with the noise (when BOB bounces back and smacks me on the chin! - no, not really, he's got no arms!)

My friends at Amazon.com are sending me some hand wraps and boxing gloves. They must be my friends because they keep sending me stuff, right? (not for free though). A couple of friends here in Helena, who happen to be boxers, will be giving me some tips and pointers to successful training. In my imagination, I think I can manage, at least for a few months, without having to join an actual gym again. We'll see.

With the bed frame in the hall closet, the bike has to live in the "gym" for the moment. I still need a pump for the tires, but I'm getting a puncture repair kit, tire levers, a special bicycle multi-tool, so that I can repair and maintain the bike myself. New bright LED lights and panniers (for carrying groceries, for example) will be added later. Cycling is going to become my next BIG THING, especially if my plan is to ride to Portland next year!

Tai Chi doesn't require much gear - just some comfortable loose clothing and lightweight shoes.

Now, too, I've got the space to be able to use my rubber/elastic resistance bands (which I've had for many months), and my homemade weights (really just 1 gallon Arizona tea jugs, filled with sand or water). If you would like to download my resistance band exercise charts, go ahead: http://www.ergoob.org/get-out-of-breath/ResistanceBandExercises.pdf. The gallon jugs, filled with water, weigh 8.6 lbs each. Filled with dry sand they weighed 12.2 lbs each. I can add water to the dry sand and probably reach 15 or 16 lbs each.

Already looking ahead to 2017

I recently purchased a map from the Missoula-based Adventure Cycling Association (https://www.adventurecycling.org) covering the Lewis & Clark Trail from Great Falls, MT to Clarkston, WA. It's the first half of my ambitious plan to cycle from Helena (or wherever) to Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2017.

This evening I started to watch a few YouTube videos on cycle touring. The average of about 50 miles a day is in line with what I had imagined I might do next year. If I want to ride 700 miles, it'll take 14 days - definitely doable. To make it more "interesting" I want to ride it on a tandem, which will require one or more riding partners. My inclination is to think that it'll take place in September, after the blazing hot months of July and August, but before the snow and cold of October make conditions too unpleasant.

The Adventure Cycling Association is promoting June 3rd through 5th as "National Bike Travel Weekend", so I'm thinking that would be a good time for me to start - the week after I get back from my Crater Lake adventure! I wonder if my legs will be in fit condition to do it?

In 2015, no-one succeeded in climbing to the top of Mount Everest

In another one of my 'influential moments' that I have from time to time, I spent a chunk of time today reading a story about a rich guy (probably a merchant banker, or something that rhymes with it ["wanker" for those not familiar with the English vernacular]) who is about my height and weighs 210 lbs. By his own admission he is out of shape. Apparently, he just paid some company $15,000 to take him to Mount Everest in May so that he can climb it, having absolutely NO previous mountain climbing experience. All the comments from other people are, like, "don't do it. You're going to die!", or "don't do it, you're going to cause other people to die" when they have to rescue him.

My interest was piqued by the Mental Floss story that in 2015, for the first time since 1974, no-one succeeded in climbing to the top of Mount Everest (http://mentalfloss.com/uk/nature/37508/nobody-reached-the-top-of-mount-everest-in-2015). Wow! Knowing how popular that has become recently, I couldn't believe it, but they had a bad earthquake there in April and another one in May. Since then, only one man attempted to reach the summit, and he "missed it by that much" to quote Maxwell Smart (well, this young Japanese guy missed it by 700 meters).

So, reading all the other comments about the out of shape guy's death wish made me think about my own recently published list of ambitious projects (http://blog.ergoob.org/2016/01/ambitious-plans.html). Unwittingly, I may have planned things so that the order makes perfect sense. Working towards being able to hike 100 miles in seven days will help build up my strength and help me lose weight.

Afterwards, and assuming the weight loss continues, I'll train towards a long bicycle ride, which will help with endurance conditioning and improving my cardiovascular fitness. I did decide that it would be more sensible to go from Portland to Helena, rather than the other way round. That way, the 'finish line' will be my home town, and I won't have a day or two of travelling back to do before I can celebrate or relax. It's also going to be a great psychological boost to see Helena from the top of McDonald Pass, and the final 18 miles will be aided by the thought of being home soon. My quick back-of-an-envelope calculation says that I should be able to do the 700 miles at an average of 10 miles per hour (including breaks) in 70 hours, and that six hours per day would make about 11½ days, plus a couple of rest days along the way. I should be able to do the whole thing in two weeks.

Then I had a bright idea! Just as my daughter is going to be with me to do the PCT hike in May of this year, why can't I find someone to accompany me on the bike ride next year - and do it on a tandem? Yeah! I really like that idea. And, as I'm writing this just now, it occurred to me that it doesn't even have to be the same person accompanying me at the end as at the beginning. I could have two companions, in case one can't get more than a week off work at a time.

Then I thought about some of the things I'd need to be doing before climbing Mount Hood. I'd need to be able to carry a 40 lb backpack for several hours a day (check!) I'd need to have experience of substantially ascending and descending roads/paths (by then, check!) I will need to have built up my cardiovascular endurance, my muscular strength and my flexibility. Hiking steep outdoor trails with a weighted pack will be important, as will practicing on a few smaller and easier climbs (Mount Rainier, perhaps). There's no problem finding small mountains in and around western Montana, or in Washington or Oregon.

I have a plan now to start doing some weight/resistance training at home. It starts off very easily, and will build up in time and intensity as my strength increases. Eventually, I will make a short video of some of those exercises, so that other people can watch and learn, and maybe be inspired.

Ambitious plans

Having asked myself the question, "What am I going to do after I finish my 100-mile hike on a section of the Pacific Crest Trail this May?", I have been thinking about other ambitious projects that I can work towards. I already mentioned Nordic or cross-country skiing in another post (http://blog.ergoob.org/2015/12/trying-to-like-snow-never-say-never.html). That'll be something for next winter (2016/17).

Here is the list I came up with so far:

• cross country or Nordic skiing (winter of 2016/17)
• 600 miles bicycle ride from Helena to Portland (spring/summer of 2017)
• climb Mount Hood in Oregon (spring/summer of 2018)

Mount Hood is a technical climb, I know, but it's only 11,250 feet high, and only three miles away from Timberline Lodge. I couldn't possibly climb it now, but in 30 months time, with the right equipment, and the right skills and training, could I do it? Absolutely! 

Could I cycle all the way to Portland today - no way! Could I in 18 months time? Absolutely! I would need about two weeks off work to do it, maybe more, but it's certainly possible. 

In the meantime, there are other sections of the PCT to hike, plus the whole of the Continental Divide Trail (which is closer to where I live anyway). I should also think up some sort of swimming challenge, since I enjoy swimming so much, and that would be a good thing to do in the winter months. 

Finally, and this might be a total pipe dream, I was inspired by this Sara Bareilles video, "Brave", that is on YouTube:

It made me want to contact her to see if I could be a dancer in one of her future music videos. She's starring in a Broadway musical, "Waitress", at the moment but I'm sure she'll be writing and performing more songs in the future and making music promotion videos. She has a great voice, and having the confidence and ability to dance like the performers in her Brave video would be fantastic for me.