Bicycle! Bicycle!

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike...

Last night after work I purchased my new mountain/comfort/hybrid (whatever) bicycle. I ended up spending about 3 times as much as I had originally intended to spend. It's a Scott model P4. Here's a photo from Scott's Website:













Also purchased a speedometer/odometer, helmet and water bottle cage. They were nice enough to throw in the cheap promotional water bottle.

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like...

Great new breakfast recipe

As part of my new lifestyle changes I'm trying to re-teach myself to cook by using healthy ingredients and measure/weigh everything that goes into what I cook. Last night I made this Banana Nut baked oatmeal thing. It was loosely based on a recipe I found on the Internet. It turned out great! If you like banana nut bread then you'll love this. The recipe makes 4 servings. After eating one serving this morning after my 30 min exercise and still being stuffed 3.5 hours later, I think I may modify it so it makes 8 servings. Here's the nutritional info:

__________________________________________
Serving Size 223.8g
Calories 339
Total Fat 8.6g
Saturated Fat 1.1g
Cholesterol 48mg
Sodium 204mg
Total Carbohydrates 55.9g
Dietary Fiber 6.2g
Sugars 21.2g
Protein 12.4g
Vitamin A 6% • Vitamin C 9%
Calcium 20% • Iron 14%
__________________________________________


And here's the recipe:

Banana Nut Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg
1 mashed banana
1 sliced banana
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs honey
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Mix dry ingredients.

3. Mix wet ingredients.

4. Pour wet into dry. Stir to combine.

5. Pour into an 8" square or round baking dish either coated in cooking spray or lined with parchment.

6. Add / arrange sliced banana on top.

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

8. Cut into 4 equal portions.

2008/2005: A photo comparison

2008

2005

Thinner errr

After a surprise trip to Montana a few weeks ago and after seeing some even more surprising photos of my hugeness I've decided to make some changes. Changes in lifestyle, changes in eating habits and changes in overall health. I'll be posting information regarding my new journey, what I'm doing to make a change and any losses (or gains). Why am I doing this (the posting)? Mostly for motivation. If I put this out there then maybe I'll feel the pressure to keep going.

Here's the plan. Using countless online body mass calculators, healthy weight calculators, weight maintenance calculators and a little common sense, I've arrived at the following: I'm 60 to 70 pounds overweight. Using the same online calculators I've decided to cut my caloric intake by almost half and stay above the safe minimum of 1200 calories per day and not exceed 1500 calories per day. I'll be using a food journal at caloriecount.about.com to track everything I eat, daily exercise and weight losses/gains. This will help me long term with learning to eat proper portions and healthy choices along with making sure I'm eating enough. It's a pain to keep up with everything but in the land of super-size this and all you can eat that, I no longer know what a normal portion looks like. In addition I'll be adding a minimum 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each day. Based on these changes I should drop an average of between 1 to 3 pounds each week. I'm starting off at 232 and my first major milestone is to break 200. 33 pounds to go.

Some people will disagree with my drastic changes and will say "It's not healthy to loose more than a pound per week". While this may be true, I've done considerable research on this and this is the plan I've chosen to implement. This is not some fad diet but a change in eating habits and a conscious effort to live a healthier lifestyle. I actually started this one week ago today and I've already dropped 8 pounds. That's right, 8 pounds in one week. I fully expect this to level off and not be the normal. Based on my calculations 1 to 3 pounds should be normal.