CRITICAL MASS SEPTEMBER

Considering the fact that I was completely unaware of the phenomenon that is CRITICAL MASS prior to last month - I am now a two time veteran of this fun bike ride.  As always, hundreds of bicyclists converged on Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago between 5:30PM and 6:30PM.   Right around 6:30PM some bicyclists starting cycling around the big city block.... And they continued to ride around the block.  Slowly but surely hundreds of cyclists joined the parade of bicycles - until CRITICAL MASS was reached and the leaderless bike trip was underway.  Last night's ride took us to the North Side of Chicago - the part of Chicago where I live and am actually familiar with.  Last month I felt as if I was a tourist in a foreign city cycling all over the southside of Chicago.  This week I was on my home turf.

I made an effort to ride up front as I was trying to figure out who is in charge of this unsanctioned, but very highly tolerated Chicago event.  Once again, as always there were quite a few POLICE OFFICERS on bikes accompanying the riders.  I did start a conversation with someone who I heard discussing where to go. I asked him if he was in charge.  I got back the standard answer that no one is in charge.  I am beginning to wonder if this is some kind of legal defense - defense against what.... I don't know.  Anyway, what I learned is that a few guys, veterans of this ride, will just kind of take charge during the ride.  They will discuss where to turn and once agreed, they simply yell out the plans.  And hundreds of bicyclists follow along.  Many times along the ride, the leaders stop to "MASS UP' which allows those trailing behind to catch up and once again become a massive collection of bicyclists. This ride is not a race.  It is simply an enjoyable ride on city streets that takes place on the last Friday of the month. Every month. I imagine that the ride might become a bit less popular in the winter.  Perhaps I will see that for myself in the upcoming months.

I used my recently downloaded application, MAP MY RIDE, to document last night's journey.  The ride was approximately two hours and the total distance travelled was 17 miles.  One month ago I was overly impressed with myself that I could actually ride my bike for 15 miles - since this was a distance that I could not remember ever biking in all of my 57 years.  During this past month, I completed a 30 mile ride when I rode to a YMCA in the suburbs, and I completed a 40 mile ride when I rode to the Indiana border.  I am no longer so impressed with myself for surviving a leisurely ride of 17 miles.  This does not diminish the enjoyment of the ride.  It is just one more example  that my abilities and the sense of what I have accomplished physically in the past year have been dramatic. The big test comes on Wednesday.  The name of this test: HALF DOME.

CRITICAL MASS CHICAGO - SEPTEMBER 2015

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226.8 lbs

I weigh 226.8 lbs.

I gained 1.4 lbs this week

I have lost 82.2 lbs in 276 days. Today begins Day 277.

I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.

I weigh 226.8 (276 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)

I have lost 26.6% of my weight since Dec 24.

I have a BMI, body mass index of 30.34 

I had a 42.0 BMI on Dec 24 just 276 days ago (Class III obesity)

I have 5 words of MOTIVATION for myself today: HALF DOME IN FIVE DAYS 

(SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, HALF DOME)

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 Friday MENU

breakfast three egg omelette w/cheese, bacon, multigrain rice cakes     855 calories
lunch      sausage, granola, ginger, spinach salad, cabbage soup           1272 calories
dinner    multigrain rice cakes, two gala apples                                       880 calories
SNACK SUPERFOOD CEREAL CHIA GINGER, date pieces, ginger 552 calories

total calories consumed 3560 calories

calories burned

YMCA PRECOR elliptical machine 125 minutes              1718  calories
132 minutes bicycling <10 mph, leisure pace                        395 calories
(MAP MY RIDE posted 1198 calories - this seems way too high - I arbitrarily reduce it 67%)

TOTAL CALORIES BURNED 2113 CALORIES

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FRIDAY NET CALORIES 1447 CALORIES

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fitbit day 23

25059 steps
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Bicyclists assembling on Daley Plaza, Chicago 

GET PARDONED

Being too heavy to enjoy life is a heavy burden to bear (pun intended)    
Being too heavy to enjoy life can be a life sentence.
There is only one person who can grant a pardon for this.
And it will be no president, nor king who will grant the pardon.

Being released from the shackles of obesity will not be this easy - even if your Daddy is the Governor

It was only one month ago that my wife suggested that my family get involved in CRITICAL MASS.  The massive bike ride that takes place in cities all over the world on the last Friday of the month.  In order to prepare for this ride I 'rescued' my bike from storage - as I had not used it for three years. As I have previously written - It was not that I had forgotten how much fun bike riding can be.  Bike riding for me was NOT fun - it is not fun when one weighs 309 lbs as I did on December 24, 2014.  Bike riding is great fun when one weighs 225 lbs. 225 lbs still seems like a lot of weight, but I promise I feel thin.  I think I am thin.  Surely, I could be thinner. Let me say this: I enjoy looking at  my reflection when I see it - I used to dread my reflection.

This month was also the debut of my fitbit.  And the fitbit has ALSO changed by life.  I am very conscious of how many steps I am taking each day. I have developed a new desire to walk, and to walk as a method of transportation. Last night I needed to be at my daughter's school for a meeting about her upcoming trip to France. In the old days, more than one month ago, I would have certainly taken the car.  Nowadays, I don't even consider taking the car for a trip like this that is less than 2 miles.  I now consider taking my bike or walking.  Lately, I have been more inclined to walk as I am interested in logging steps. I finally figured out how to log my actual route taken with the fitbit application.  I didn't even know that this application was available until my brother told me about it.

The application is very cool as you can play music while using it. The application will interrupt the music to advise you each time you walk a mile.  ELECTRONICS MAKE EXERCISE FUN.

Walking back from my daughter's school, I made an effort to walk as fast as possible.  My rate was 14 minutes per mile. (just a bit faster than 4 mph)   The fitbit calculated that this short burst of activiy, just 25 minutes walking 1.73 miles 'burned' 240 calories.  I walked to the school too, but as I was going to a meeting, I was trying not to work up a sweat so my meandering pace surely burned far less calories.

TODAY IS THE LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH... I am going to participate in the September edition of CRITICAL MASS tonight.  My family, who don't yet own their own bikes, are sitting this one out. Everyone is planning the HALLOWEEN EDITION of this ride - as that is supposed to be extra fun.  That is still one month away.

In three days, I hop onto a plane to San Francisco to meet up with six other guys as we get ready for our Half Dome Hike.  This seems like a lot of activity for someone who was a couch potato for nearly a decade.

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the cancellation of the relevant penalty; it is usually granted by a head of state (such as monarch or president) or by acts of parliament or a religious authority.

Life is definitely more fun as I am no longer a prisoner of my own morbidly obese body. Prisoner is the right word.  Being too fat to participate in physical activity is a harsh sentence for someone to impose on oneself.  It is not unusual but it truly is a cruel punishment. The good thing is that everyone has the power to grant their own pardon when they are ready.  The thing with being too fat to enjoy life is that you can't sit around waiting for a 'head of state' to commute your sentence.  Each one of us is our own 'head of state.' My recommendation is that you show compassion for yourself - Issue that pardon.

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 Thursday MENU

breakfast  center cut bacon, oatmeal, poached eggs                         550 calories
lunch        apples, ginger, yogurt raisins                                            838 calories
dinner      apples, cabbage soup, banana chips, pumpkin seeds        838 calories
SNACK   date pieces, corn snack, granola                                        530 calories

TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED 2756 CALORIES

calories burned

YMCA PRECOR elliptical machine 125 minutes, 4:3 interval training              1670  calories

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ThursDAY NET CALORIES 1086 CALORIES

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fitbit day 22

21325 steps

Approximately 5000 of the steps recorded on Thursday were from my walk to and back from my daughter's school for an evening meeting.  Without the fitbit, surely I would have driven. I do enjoy racking up the steps and thinking about ways to increase my steps each day. Twice yesterday I drove to two different retail stores and each time I parked as far away from the front door as possible.

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EXPLOSIVE START FOR CRITICAL MASS

One more final thing to say about CRITICAL MASS on Friday night.  Since I am the only one in the family who owns a bike, my wife and daughter rented bicycles near Navy Pier on Friday.  I met them at the bike shop.  It had only been one week since my bicycle was 'rescued' from 'mothballs.'   I had inflated the tires to a level that seemed appropriate - but I did not know how much to inflate them.   I was sure that they were still under-inflated.  I used the opportunity at the bike repair/rental shop to ask about my tires. An extremely helpful guy said the tires should be inflated to 75 psi and that I could use their hand pump.   I gratefully accepted this advice and inflated my tires to the proper pressure.

As the transaction for my wife and daughter continued about 5 minutes after inflating my tires - There was a loud explosion in the bike shop. My tire exploded. My first inclination was to blame the guy who told me to inflate the tires to 75 psi.  The explanation came that perhaps their was some bubble between the rim and tube that caused the explosion.  I also remembered that the tires had been uninflected for three years.  The guy in the shop offered to fix the tire without charging for labor and simply charged me $6.95 for a new tube.  Within 10 minutes, I was back up and running (riding.)   This explosion of my tube would have been far more problematical had it occurred along the 15+ mile bike route that we took.  I was very grateful to have this particular setback right in the bike shop.

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 Saturday MENU

breakfast  apples                                                                          144 calories
lunch        salad bar, wasabi, mango                                           1399 calories
dinner      apples, rice cake, granola, mango, wasabi, almonds 1483 calories

total calories consumed 3026 calories

calories burned

elliptical machine 92 minutes, manual, level 20              2064 calories

CALORIES BURNED 2064 CALORIES

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Saturday net calories 962 calories
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AMAZING BIKE RIDE

CRITICAL MASS. CHICAGO. The last Friday of the month. I was not sure what to expect. My family arrived at Daley Plaza in Chicago at 5:30PM.  Over the next hour, hundreds of bikes (and their owners) arrived.  There was some some wild looking bikes congregating on the Plaza.  One guy rode a replica 1900's bicycle with the giant oversize front wheel.  Other bikes were decorated so that they looked like the bicycle Pee Wee Herman rode in 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure."  I was pleased so see Police Officers (on bikes) at the Plaza. There would be Police Escorts along the entire route.  The Police helped keep riders on the right side of the roads and control traffic.  The ride traversed perhaps 15 miles of Chicago streets.   It was like a bicycle parade.  All night long, the bicyclists shouted out "Happy Friday" to pedestrians and to folks stuck in their cars. I may have noticed some drivers annoyed at being stuck in a sea of bikers, but they were in the minority.  It was much more common to see giant smiles on the faces of people as a thousand bicyclists passed them by.  It seemed that everyone was shooting video of us on their cellphones. It was a great freedom to ride bikes in the streets and not have to stop for a stop sign or a traffic light.  The ride lasted from 6:30PM until about 8:45PM.  It was truly an amazing experience.  I will definitely do this again.  Meanwhile back on the scale, I am personally approaching critical mass.   There is no way that I want to pop up over 230 lbs.

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226.6 lbs

I weigh 226.6 lbs.

I gained 2.8 lbs this week

I have lost 82.4 lbs in 248 days. Today begins Day 251.

I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.

I weigh 226.6 (248 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)

I have lost 26.6% of my weight since Dec 24.

I have a BMI, body mass index of 30.31 

I had a 42.0 BMI on Dec 24 just 234 days ago (Class III obesity)

I have nine words of wisdom for myself today: ONE CAN NOT EXERCISE ENOUGH TO COMPENSATE FOR OVEREATING.

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 FRIDAY MENU

breakfast    oatmeal, bacon, poached eggs, cherry vanilla granola   834 calories
lunch          baby spinach, asparagus, apples                                     376 calories
dinner        turkey, sausage, date pieces, granola, ginger                 1089 calories
SNACK     ginger chews, No Cow Bar Mint, toasted coconut          830 calories

total calories consumed 3129 calories

calories burned
HOME ELLIPTICAL 65 MINUTES, MANUAL SETTING, LEVEL '20'  1174 CALORIES

Friday net calories 1955 calories
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still 30 minutes to go before the start of the ride... Daley Plaza, Chicago

BICYCLE RACE

BICYCLE RACE is a weird, fun and terrific song from QUEEN originally released in 1978, on their album, Jazz.  The lyrics start like this:

Bicycle bicycle bicycle

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

Yesterday, I 'rescued' by bicycle from 'mothballs' where it was being kept in the bike room in the garage of my building.  I have not used my bicycle in more than 3 years.  Our family is going to be part of the Chicago 'Critical Mass' bike ride this Friday - so it was time to see if my bike was in working order.  After dusting if off a bit and pumping some air into the tires I was back on the roads again.  I don't think that I actually forgot how much fun bike riding can be.  It was NOT fun when I was 300+ pounds.  It WAS fun yesterday.  I think I am going to be biking around town much more these days.  What a great way to get to my local YMCA - rather than driving the car.  Yep, I am a bike rider again!

My set of wheels: DIAMONDBACK 

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 Sunday MENU

breakfast  steel cup oatmeal, rice cakes                                               545 calories
lunch       spinach, hearts palm, clam chowder, kale crunch                626 calories
dinner      spinach, hearts palm, chowder, salmon fillet, rice cakes     851 calories  
SNACK   mango, wasabi peas, granola, kahuna trail mix                  770 calories

total calories consumed 2792 calories

calories burned

elliptical machine 92 minutes, manual, level 20              2191 calories

CALORIES BURNED 2191 CALORIES

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Saturday net calories 601 calories

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QUEEN - 'SIMPSONS' STYLE