today was great! my friends invited me to join them for a bike ride. we did almost 20miles. it was pretty hot but do-able, and it never rained. i also installed the computer and was glad that it gave my an option in input the miles i've already done. this way, i can keep track of all the miles i do and don't have to add them up myself. yay for not having to do math! hey, it is the summer, the time when all of our brains turn into mush-melons. haha, that's what my crazy 7th grade science teacher used to say. i'll never forget him because he was so evil...
i didn't sleep well last night, so this morning i got up, had 2 pancakes for breakfast, lazed around and went back to bed for a nap. i'm sure that if my friends weren't waiting for me, i would have stayed in bed all day. i'm glad i didn't! instead i got up, had a slim-fast, and sped over to meet them. i had a really nice time and also learned about a few more trails that i didn't know existed. cool.
afterwards one of my friends stayed over to help me eat the left-overs from last night. so yea, i had 2 more burgers (no bun or veggies though), along with more of the veggies and dip and a handful of chips and chili dip. i also finished up the last couple of spoonfuls of icecream. it was yummy! but since i didn't do anything else today, i have a lot of dishes piled up in the sink that need to be tackled tonight. ugh, i don't like doing the dishes! can i clean the bathroom instead??
weight went up a little bit, but that's too be expected after going to bed on such a full stomach. tomorrow's scale reading probably won't be any better though. but tomorrow will lead to more riding and sand volleyball, if it doesn't rain.
this may become a problem. i shouldn't eat so much on the weekends, but fun with friends usually means fun with food...darn you american culture! speaking of america, next week is the Fourth....
weight: 215lbs days left: 43 today: 0mi total 16.5mi
well, it does really look like i am loosing a little weight. but maybe not so much after today. i wasn't able to ride at all because i was too busy shopping, cleaning house, and getting ready for having some friends over for dinner. the dinner wasn't too healthy, but at least everything was homemade. i had some veggies and dip, tortilla chips and chili dip, 2 hamburgers with onions and tomato, and a bowl of homemade chocolate icecream. besides that, i didn't eat much the rest of the day, just a slim fast and a bowl of cherries. i was at least planning on swimming with my friends, but the pool didn't look clean. ew.
tomorrow i'm sure i'll be able to get in some sort of riding. it's supposed to rain, but if it's not too hard, i'll head out for a ride. if it's pouring, then i'll go to the corec. we'll see how it goes...
it's no fun when i ride by yummy smelling restaurants. yesterday it was dominos, thankfully i don't like their pizza, and today it was puccini's and bruno's. ah, it's smelled so good....
weight: 216lbs days left: 44 today: 13.5mi total: 16.5mi
what a beautiful day! slept in really late for no reason at all, but it was so nice. called Hodson's Bay about a tune-up. a full tune-up costs about $50 and there's a waiting line, so i made an appointment for July 8. wow. but i put my bike on a bus and went to the shop to get new brake pads, air in the tires, and the seat raised a little bit. the whole thing cost $9.26, which is great, but seeing how easy it is to change brake pads, i'm mad that i spent $5 on labor when the pads were only $4. could have done everything myself, i'll have to remember that for next time. luckily i didn't have them install my computer, i know i can do that myself and it would have cost like another $10. now i'm wondering how much money i've been spending on this endeavor. since i figure that my followers may want to know the cost of things in case they want to start cycling too, let's see what it's racking up to be:
eh, i guess that isn't so bad, yet. there are still some other things that i'll eventually need to get: essential tool kit (tire levelers, all purpose tool, wrenches, spoke wrench, etc), chamois butter, maybe a small pouch, a headlight, a new seat, new jersey or two, and of course the tune-up. so the bill can add up quickly, especially if i spend too much time in the shop. i'll want to buy everything!
some things that i already have that a new cyclist may want to consider are: a functional bike, helmet, camelback hydration system, spare inner tubes, gloves, cycling shorts, cycling jerseys, sunglasses, sunscreen, etc. so yea, this isn't a cheap sport, but it's sure worth every penny!
so anyway, RJ was more cooperative today and i got to ride a lot. after Hodsons i rode over to the library to pick up the Woman's Guide that i had on hold, then i biked all the way home. it was such beautiful weather, i'm so glad that i took advantage of it. hot, but great cool breeze. when i got home i threw on my volleyball clothes and biked over to the corec, and then back again after playing for 2hours. it was great that the salisbury hill didn't kill me like it usually does and i accidentally found myself going up the grant st hill, which i thought would be horrendous since going down at 20mph is scary enough, but it actually wasn't that bad. when you're going down, you don't realize that there is a nice flat spot. i enjoyed it. so overall i was able to cycle 13.5miles. cool!
food was actually not enough today. since i woke up late, i had a slim-fast shake for lunch. then a fiber-one bar before heading out. i drank so much water that i wasn't hungry enough for food. i definitely felt it during volleyball though. i was like a slug and couldn't concentrate. i'll remember not to do that again! right now i'm trying to enjoy a bowl of chili, but not really liking the Great Value version. nothing beats Hormel! it would be better if i had cheese, onions, and crackers, or at least some cream cheese. i do have onions, but that wouldn't taste right by itself. oh well.
but look! 116lbs!! could it be? maybe that slim-fast shake i had yesterday really does slim fast! either that, or all the zumba-ing! actually, i think it's more because i was more careful when calibrating the scale this morning. yesterday i just stepped on without paying attention. it's not digital, i have to make sure it's zero-ed all the time. so maybe i've just been lying to myself, maybe i never weighed 220lb and it's my mom's scale that's messed up. but we can't be sure yet, have to see what comes tomorrow. watch, my luck will show me that i actually gained weight, over 220. haha hope not!
if i have time tomorrow, i'll go check out the spin class at 5:30pm (there's a 5:15AM class, but noooo way!!!!). i'm planning on having friends over for dinner (a healthy dinner), so most of the day will be spent making my apartment presentable. weather's supposed to be great, no excuse not to ride.
tonight i'm just going to do a little clean up, dishes and garbage, and then curl up with the idiot's guide. i'm learning about components now, it's really interesting. have a good night!
weight: 219lbs days left: 45 today: 3mi total: 3mi
RJ is a stubborn old horse. he was the last one i thought that would be lazy! gosh! i went to a zumba class at the co-rec at 6:30 today, it was such a workout. fyi, zumba is a cardio-dance exercise to the beat of very loud music. i liked it, but the hardest dance was where we had to keep our arms up the whole time. i could actually feel them burn hotter and sweat more. and man was there sweat! that room is hotter than the volleyball gym! realization: i was probably the biggest person there. there was only one other girl that could compare to me. all the other girls were short and petite, with a little chub here and there. it still made me feel like a giant. :-(
anyway, i was planning on coming home and jumping in the pool to cool off, thinking that zumba was enough exercise for one day. but then i was like no! Nina, your blog is about cycling, not zumba-ing! it's only the second day and i'm already failing! so, since i was full of sweat anyway, i hopped on my bike. it's been sitting for 2.5 weeks, so i was smart enough to give it a quick look-over and check the tire pressure. the pressure wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for a short 10mile ride. still RJ didn't stop resisting! when i got to the end of the parking lot, i realized that my front break isn't working. pull over, check it out. WHAT?? how could the right break pad be missing? i was thinking that it was just a matter of tightening the cables, but no! darn you RJ! since i worked this hard to get him down the stairs and out the door, i went for a short ride anyway, but only 3miles. i didn't want to go too far and end up being stranded with a flat tir, flying down a hill without brakes, or anything else RJ could throw at me.
so, looks like i'll have to take the bike in for a tune-up and new pads. gosh, i didn't think i'd have to be spending this much money so soon. one of the reasons that i decided to lose weight through cycling is because i have pretty much everything i need and i didn't want to be spending money i don't have (i don't have a job, see?). i'll have to call Hodson's Bay tomorrow morning and get more info about a tune-up. maybe they can install the bike computer i bought today while they're at it. looks like tomorrow's ride with wrcc will have to be postponed...
the food front was good today though. raspberry smoothie for breakfast, pb&j sandwich for lunch, fiber-one bar before zumba, and now i'm enjoying a delicious chocolate slim-fast shake. after my shower i think i'm going to relax in front of the tv with a bowl of yummy cherries. it's a good thing that i love fruit so much! my stomach did growl a few times today, but fortunately i was too busy to pay attention to it. hopefully i'll be able to resist other urges.
it also looks like i lost a little weight. however, that could just be a minor variation due to the fact that my mom's scale is different from mine. but hey, anything to make me feel better about myself!
been reading the Idiot's Guide. i thought that would be a good place to start, so that i'll be able to understand what the heck Lance Armstrong's trainer is trying to tell me. interesting fact: Le Tour de France was started in 1903 by a magazine company that wanted more publicity. But since the guide was copyrighted in 1999, Lance Armstong isn't mentioned at all and it says that the only American to ever win the Tour is Greg LeMond (hehe, french name). also, the winner of each stage (one day's race) gets to wear the yellow jersey. Yellow because it was the magazine's logo color. interesting no?
tomorrow, if my bike doesn't get fixed quickly enough, i'll be heading over to volleyball. no excuse to be lazy!
today was an alright day. i got back to my apartment about 1pm and was very productive all day. unfortunately, none of it had to do with a bike. the weather was great and i'm so mad i missed it. but i did exercise! 2 hours of volleyball! volleyball may not be as demanding as other sports, but if the occasional dodge and jump aren't enough to lose weight, then i'm sure i sweated enough weight out in that grossly hot gym. anyone hear of air conditioning????
the food front was good today too. just was too busy to eat. just a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, a pb&fluff sandwich for lunch, and right now i'm heating up 6 chicken nuggets for dinner. i don't even have any sauce for them...
tomorrow i'm looking forward to yummy fruit smoothies and shopping for other healthy foods. it's supposed to be good weather, after the storm that's should to hit tonight. i think i'm going to read a little more before bed too, let's see what i learn.
haha, look at that! i was so concentrated on blogging that i forgot about the food in the microwave. maybe i should keep busy more often!
oh yea, i did mail my application and dues for wrcc. should be getting news letters in email and can now start joining them on rides! there's a ride for me on thurs, hopefully the weather's nice then!
okey, so today's schedule didn't yield to a bike ride. i had to wake up early to get the day started, lots to do! it stormed all morning while i was running errands and i was too busy to enjoy the humid heat later in the afternoon. right now i'm enjoying the amazingly beautiful lightning storm coming our way. but i think it'll pass right over with little rain.
was too busy running around this morning to even remember to weigh myself, so i guess this post will be a little lacking. but tomorrow is a new day and the official start of my workout and diet. i'll be heading back to my apartment at purdue after breakfast and i have to be at volleyball tomorrow evening, so i'll definitely get in some exercise. supposed to rain some more though, so we'll see about the bike ride.
the food front was good today, so i guess that's one piece of good news. sorta. i had a small bowl of cereal and a banana for breakfast, and then had a quesadilla and a bit of brownie at Qdoba when i was at lunch with mom. but i don't think it settled with me right. been feeling sick since, that goofy liquidy feeling high in the chest. i couldn't even finish the quesadilla. ugh. but hey, i haven't eaten a single thing since, so that's great for my diet. can i be sick more often? :-) i went to Half Price Books store in Orland Park with mom today too. i picked up The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cycling. they didn't have it at the library and since it was so cheap (half price, haha) why not? i like that i can highlight and mark pages in it now. the guide goes over a lot of important basics, like the history of cycling, types of bikes, safety, maintenance, etc. it doesn't hurt to learn the basics! i've started reading a few pages, but nothing significant yet. i'll let you know what i learn.
so yea, tomorrow i'll just have to make sure to send in my membership application for wrcc and get some exercise in. we'll see how much weight i lost due to being "ill". haha!
well, not exactly starting off on the right foot today. thank goodness i don't really mean to actually jump into high gear until tuesday. but i was hoping to get a head start. oh well.
good news! the scale this morning showed 220. hooray, only gained 1 pound while on vacation! however, this may not seem so good to those of you that know me, thinking how the hell can Nina be 220? where does she hide it? but yes, i am, and no, i don't like it one bit. it's the heaviest i've ever been and i promise to never be again! haha, i remember i used to say that about 200. that was appalling, and it still is, so hopefully i can lose all this and never have to worry about horrific numbers again.
but bad news. today's events just wouldn't let me exercise. and worse news, i couldn't control myself as well as i should have around food, bad Nina! today was a beautiful day and i was planning on hopping on the bike early in the morning, but when i got downstairs my dad invited me to go harley riding with him on father's day. it's was an incredibly enjoyable ride, but not the kind that i should have been doing. for the rest of the day i was trying to think of ways i can run away and hop on the bicycle, but it never happened. i got home from harley riding and started to help clean the house to prepare for family coming over for a little fiesta at 4. i hung out with the fam all day until 9, when i went out to meet a friend to catch up on the times. so i was not able to squeeze in even the tiniest exercise, unless you count pushing the vacuum cleaner all over the house exercise. man....
food wasn't that good either. i thought i had a good start. because we went harley riding right away, i didn't eat breakfast. for lunch i only had 1 egg-in-a-basket. a little later though, i had one of those quicky frozen microwavable burritos. i was hungry, so i don't regret that. but then came the brownies that i made for the party. i shouldn't have had so many throughout the day (5????). for dinner though, all i had was a bbq chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) and a small handful of chips. so i don't know, maybe i didn't do so bad after all. but i just feel so fat. oh wait, i forgot about the milkshake i just had, haha. that's why i feel this way!! darnit! i really hope i'll do better tomorrow...
i looked up the membership fees for the wabash river cycle club (wrcc). it's only $15 for students (i hope they're counting college students) or $20 for adult. pretty good deal if you ask me! i didn't sign up online today though because they charge a fee for using Paypal, and since i don't have paypal, the whole thing is not an option. but i can download a paper format and send a check in by mail. i'll have to wait till i get by to my apartment to get my checkbook and send that along. but i looked over the website and the calendar and it seems like there are a lot of opportunities to ride. currently i am included in the AA to A categories (10-13mph speed) and there are at least 3 rides a week that i can join. cool that they meet just blocks away from my apartment too. can't wait to try it out!
been thinking about things that i may need to do/get in order to be prepared for a summer of riding. the top of my list is a bike computer (that tiny little speedometer/odometer that tracks everything i need to know about my riding). it would be great to keep track of the miles and see how fast i go. i had one on my mountain bike, but i accidentally dropped it and the screen broke. not a big deal though, they come cheap nowadays. don't need anything fancy. i was also thinking that maybe i should get a couple of workout tanktops, but then again, why? i have all these free tshirts that are only good enough for sweating in, so why spend money on tanks? i'll survive with a sweaty farmers tan, big deal. eventually though, i think i should put a little money into a tune-up by the bike pros. it's always nice to know that everything's working properly. my dream would be to get a new saddle. one of those thin little streamlined things that don't look comfy at all, but actually are. the seat i have right now is some cushy old thing taken from some other jalopy and it's all torn up. i have a cushy cover over it, and i also wear cushy bike shorts, but i have a feeling that too much cush is actually not very cushy. the people i rode with during CoverIN had those tiny fancy saddles, but none of them complained of being sore. i figure that if the saddles weren't comfy, they wouldn't be making them. and i could probably pick one up for about $20 on ebay. so i'll trying to save up for a new saddle.
i don't know how tomorrow will go. i don't think i'm too busy, but it looks like it's supposed to storm all day. will anything ever go my way????
***it looks like the time and date displayed by my posts is the time that i start writing the post, instead of when i publish it. that's a little weird, since it takes me some time to write. also, the post that says it was published on thursday was actually published on saturday. thursday was the day i created the blog, but i didn't post anything then. weird stuff. so yea, just to let you know that the dates can be a little misleading. hopefully this post will say that it was published on sunday...***
i'm visiting at my parents' place this weekend, in Mokena, IL, just south of Chicago. so it'll be hard to start actually riding until tuesday at the earliest, if my parents let me go home that early! of course they would love for me to stay all summer, but as my mother said just earlier today, those who enter the K's home thin, will come out fat. even the pets are fat! and that just won't do for me anymore! we got home from a family vacation on friday and i am only planning to stay for a few days to celebrate father's day, so i didn't bring my bike. however, there are few things that i can get started on while i'm here.
the vacation was of course centered around food, gosh do i regret it! i'm so not looking forward to stepping on the scale in the morning, i've been avoiding it so far. but it'll have to be done and you'll know the worst! then i will burst out of the bathroom screaming and keep on running right out the door and across the lawn and down the bike trail until i can't run anymore. well, ok, maybe i will be a little more civilized than that. my parents' backyard leads right onto the Old Plank Road Trail, a beautiful flat 21mile paved trail that connects into other trails and provides great motivation to exercise. so i'm thinking that i will borrow my younger brother's bike, and see how far i can go until my legs cramp up because the bike is a little small for me. but hey, got use what resources i have!
also while i'm here, i'll look into joining the wabash river cycle club. there's an online application, and i just have to find out how much the membership dues are. hopefully it'll be worth it.
so, i better get off to bed now so that i can sleep well, wake up, and enjoy the number that shows up on the scale! oh yay!
