Bicycling your way to fitness

After many years of not getting on a bicycle I decided to start up biking again as a way to get back into shape. I cleaned off my dusty 21 speed mountain bike (bought at WalMart a few years back) and did some maintenance on it.

About 2 weeks ago my daughter and I went on a local bike ride that I thought would be an easy start to my bike riding fitness routine again - boy was I wrong. The route was from our drive way and took a 6 mile loop back to our driveway. We live on a country road so the traffic would be very light. The loop had some small hills, or so I thought they were small until I was biking them. Those hills turned into steep mountain passes as I was going up them. My daughter was way ahead of me and kept looking back at her struggling mother who was almost dying. I found out that I was extremely out of shape. The trip took just about an hour when it should have taken half that time. After I got home I was hurting and aching for 3 days.

Well I finally got up the nerve to try it again. This time it was a flatter route and only 2 hills. This trip was about 2 miles shorter and much less of a workout but I did it without any lasting pain. That trip was done on Sunday morning and here it is Monday morning and I feel great. The muscles in my upper abdomen feel tighter and my thigh muscles are pulling my fat in. My clothes are now fitting better. This time I plan on going biking at least 2X a week for starters.

I am not being anit-social I am just trying to lose weight

Please don't be insulted if I don't show up at the company feast together for an employee's birthday or retirement party. I don't need to be tempted by high carb foods right now. I know some readers will say "but you could always just show up to say hi". I will answer that by saying I have done that but end up with someone handing me a plate with cake on it or someone saying "you don't like my cooking?"

Just ignore me for now. I am not a crab, just a dieter on a mission.

The best compliment ever

I was sent off to work with a smile on my face. My husband said good-bye to me and called me "baggy pants". It was the best backhanded compliment I had ever heard. Ever since his doctor put him on a low carb diet 3 weeks ago (he has lost 20 lbs so far), I had decided to join him on the diet. My results were not as dramatic as his (3 lbs so far) but I felt thinner. Last night I decided to try on a pair of black jeans that I had in the closet that were almost brand new. I bought them almost 2 years ago and found out they were too tight. I decided to keep them for when I lost some weight. When I put them on they FIT!!! I did not have to pull the 2 sides of the zipper close together to zip them up either. I will wear my "baggy pants" label with pride today!