Resolutions

I have two resolutions for the the new year:

1. Get back into the habit of commuting every day
2. Lose some weight.

Once I was able to start riding after the accident I started easing into regular commuting. I started riding a few times a week with the intention of gradually increasing my riding until I was riding every day. The problem is that it was too easy to find an excuse not to ride. I looked back at my records and saw that there were only 5 weeks in 2008 where I rode both to and from work. One of those was in January (before the accident, of course), one each in August and September, and two in October. Weeks with 4 round trips were fairly rare as well. Now there will be the occasional day that I can't ride, but I have only been riding about half the time, maybe less. This is what lead to my first resolution.

I actually rode all 5 days in the first week in January and I was tired at the end of the week. Riding in cold weather is more difficult but my lack of conditioning is part of the reason as well. I hadn't ridden at all in two weeks. The extra weight that I'm carrying doesn't help either.

That leads into my second resolution. I am way too heavy right now. I weighed myself on Wednesday and I was 203.5 lbs. and 26% body fat. This is about 30 lbs. heavier that what I weighed in 2006 and 2007. It's even about 18 lbs. heavier than where I was when I started riding in 2005. On good thing is that it is still 30 lbs. lighter than what I weighed in 1999.

I don't have a specific plan for losing weight. Riding more and not eating like a pig are part of the equation. I know that losing a pound a week should not be too much trouble for me but I'm not setting a specific goal. I do plan on posting my weight here every week or so to keep myself honest. I will also post whenever I don't ride to work.