My year of fitness

[BLachance75]

I went through my Strava profile and put all of my workouts into a spreadsheet. I may have missed loading some walks into Strava but I'm not going to go back and double check.



The distances are in miles and feet for elevation. All of the walks are on my "lunch" break at work.

Overall I'm happy with my year considering it is my first year actually being serious about fitness and cycling. For 2024 I want to increase the total I ride and definitely the amount of outdoor rides. I'm hoping that I can either find a weeknight group ride on my way home from work that I can join or I may start putting my bike in the truck and stopping at a local reservoir for a lap or 2 a few nights a week on my way home from work.

My goals for 2024
At least 3000 total miles riding and I'd like to get 1000 miles outdoors.
Do a lot more zone 2 rides.
At least 200 miles on my work walks.
Start tracking any races I do and record my finishing position.

I've been on the borderline of category D and C on Zwift for racing and was bumped to C again today. I was bumped in early November but fought it and was put back into D. Instead of trying to fight it again or sandbag to get back down to D I'm going to work at improving my fitness. It will suck for a while to constantly be dropped in every race but hopefully in time I will improve and be able to compete.


I'd love to hear what others have done through the year.

[Melrosejedi]

You have had quite the year. You have achieved alot and are a true inspiration. Way to go, good luck in your future endeavors and happy new year.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Way to go Brian. I’m amazed at your transformation! I wish I had your motivation.

[Jonnydread]

y u so smol!?

[martix_agent]

What is Zwift?

[TouchofGrey]

Doing 3-4 mile a day power walks. Also back exercizes and weight resistance training at the gym. Can't wait for swimming to open up in July. I'm good with what I can keep up with now. Too cold for me to bike. Trying to stay at 175 lbs and look forward to a good year of paintball.

[BLachance75]

My walks at work are at a fast pace. I try to time them when there is less people in the airport terminals as it is easier to keep a good pace. When the terminals are crowded I have to slow down and weave around people. I definitely prefer walking outside when the temperatures allow it.

[BLachance75]

What is Zwift?

https://www.zwift.com/

Zwift is an indoor cycling app. It kind of video gamifies exercise. There are training plans, races, group rides or you can just cycle around in a virtual world on your own.

[BLachance75]

I guess I should put this here as well as it fits.



On 1/15/23 I was 286.2 lbs which was the biggest I'd ever been. I went to see a hypnotist who helps with weight loss. This is something that I had done in the past and it helped. The hypnosis helps with portion control as well as stop's cravings. From mid January to mid June all I ate was meat and vegetables and I also stopped drinking. I wasn't a big drinker for the most part but when I would drink I'd also overeat.

I set a lot of small goals for myself along the way so I'd have something to work towards. Some were weights but others were fitting into certain clothes. First it was to fit into xxl shirts as they had gotten tight and uncomfortable when I was 286. Then it was to be under 250, 220, fit into xl shirts, be overweight instead of morbidly obese, under 190, 185.

I hit my low of 183 lbs on 8/2/23

From mid June to the beginning of September I maintained in the 185-190 range. I went to Hawaii on vacation in the beginning of September and didn't worry about what I ate. I had actually slowly been starting to add carbs into my diet for about a month to prepare. After vacation I kind of didn't stop eating like I was on vacation and had gotten up to 210. I buckled down and am back around 190 which is kind of a sweet spot for me.

[BrickHaus]

Damn, that's some Hella progress. I was up to 238 when I buckled down a few years ago. I've bounced from 187-210 since, and 200 seems to be my sweet spot for having energy, and satisfying my body dysmorphia goals.

Honestly cutting drinking alone is so huge. It's just empty sugars that all deposit in our livers.

I weined a bit at the end of last year, but I've been killing hour long workouts this week to start the year off right. Thanks for the motivation with this post.

[Mr. Hick]

You're a GD machine, Brian. Keep it up dude!

[Seajay]

Happy New Year! Great job!