When I took up cycling to work in 2014 it had been a while since I'd realized that my body wasn't what it used to be. As a teen there was no run or hike too long and I was never too sore to try again the next day. I was scrawny. Never really tracked my weight. Never had to. Ate like an animal.
Then in my 30's I found myself with recurring back pain; nothing serious, but annoying. Every flight of stairs ended with heavy breathing, which may be common but isn't normal. It was enough motivation to get moving.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2017, when I had been riding for long enough to have developed a bit of discipline and lungs. Back pain was gone, but my BMI was still hovering around 25: overweight.
How did this happen? Scrawny kids can't be overweight! It's amazing what ten years of inactivity and the sedentary lifestyle will do to you. Amazing and terrible! To top it off it was frustrating to now be much more active than at any time in the past decade and still oscillating between 175 and 180 pounds, which isn't healthy at 5'9". The previous year, 2016, was the first time I heard a doctor talk to me about the need to mind my cholesterol. In 2017 I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Is it really all downhill from 30?
Eventually I had had it. I love eating and hate the concept of dieting, especially for weight loss. But I had to do something! So in July I marked 178 pounds as my starting weight and decided to take a step, and it worked! That step led to another, and that one to another. Yesterday I started the day at 159 pounds. I've dropped 10% of my weight in the last 5 months.
I've detailed the steps that led up to it. Each step developed over a month or so. I don't think I would have succeeded doing it all at once.
