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BikeSwimLaugh

BikeSwimLaugh

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Who is BSL?

Join me as we take an introspective journey into the mind, body & soul of the personality and identity otherwise known as Bike-Swim-Laugh.....you'll delight in horror, reel in disgust and reach new boundaries of nausea as we venture deep into the shallow mind of the quinessential mid-life American looking to seek a higher degree of fitness. And please; personal hygiene is not mandatory! (it's like...soooo over-rated anyways).

I write like I speak, and I speak without thinking....and I often can't think what to write, but when I stop trying to think, I tend to write, a lot. That said, please feel free to post your thoughts, questions and comments here. Also, if you are female and care to comment on any of my pics, please feel free to incorporate exaggeration & dishonestly as a means to enhance and outline any positive criticism you may wish to impart on me as a means of inspiration & incentive.

Also, for your convienence exits from this thread are available in the aft & foreward section of the webpage. In the event of an actual emergency, smiley-faces will instruct you towards proper exits. If, after the BSL experience, you should experience dizziness, nausea or vomitting please see Chillen for further instructions. Thank you and in the humble words (and Indian accent) of the many 7-11 clerks that tend counters across our great nation; please come again! :D
 
Having said nothing of myself.....

BSL is actually a guy named Steve. Born in 1965 and residing in Southern California I've pretty much been over-weight my entire life. Not grossly overweight, but enough that it sucked my self-confidence and pretty much tormented me as a psychological badge of shame. Was it a wall I put up? Was it some kind of barrier erected to stave-off the horrors that civilized society impairs on it's victims??....no, nay......I say it was just a matter that french-fries, pizza and take-out food tasted a lot better then carrots & lemon-chicken. I just liked to eat and like any addict would rise in the morning and consume until I was satisfied....then I'd gleefully endulge & feed that hunger all day, looking forward to each meal as yet another opportunity to eat delicious food.

Everyone told me I wasn't "fat"...just husky, big, muscular, strong, etc. Of course, now that I've lost weight & shaped-up, they all concede very simply: I was fat. Let that be a lesson to you; people & friends will generally tell you what they think you want to hear...and the few that tell you the truth, you'll be inclined to eventually disregard, mitigate and dismiss those comments. The truth is something that's tough to face.

Well, that truth hit me square in the face when I turned 42 and the doctor told me it was time to deal with my borderline high blood pressure and super-high triglycerides. I figured it was that or just wait and hope I survived a heart-attack. Yeah, I decided to run with plan A.

Now the thing is....if you get a sinus infection or some bronchitis...you'll get some antibiotics that you'll take for a couple weeks and then be done. "Done" being the key word. That's not the case with cholesterol or blood-pressure medication: it's pretty much a life-time sentence. Suddenly I realized I had turned a serious chapter in my life....I would now be tied to a little bottle of pills, a bottle I could (in my best senior-citizen voice) call "my pills" or "my medication". Now if I was involved in a hostage situation or stranded on an island, I'd "need my medication"........yeah, you feelin' that??? It didn't take long for me to catagorize it into the "oh hell no" section of my life.

I asked the doctor if I could try diet & exercise and he said "you can try that, but it's likely a genetic thing and even diet & exercise can only make a so-so difference". I know, a bit disappointing for someone in the medical field to say....but there it was. And after all, I was already playing racquetball, doing a bit of mountain biking and "trying" to lose weight by watching what I was eating...and despite all that, my triglycerides were at 470 (NOT good). So perhaps it was genetics. The doctor insisted I get on the meds and then, IF I lost weight, we could reevaluate my situation to see if we could reduce the meds.

Even though I filled the prescription, I decided to give myself 3 months to try diet & exercise. I joined a 2nd night of racquetball league, started biking 2x per week and got into weights on a regular basis. I also picked-up some supplements and changed my diet. Months later I went back to the doctors, they drew blood and my triglycerides had plummted to 140 and my cholesterol was great. My BP was still a bit high, but not enough to require medication. The doctor was amazed and could only say that "everyone says they'll diet & exercise, you are the 1 in 1,000 that actually did it...AND your body responded very well to it".......

Today, I've added swimming & spinning to my routine, ride 3x longer and have built even more momentum & spirit into achieving my goal. It's been about one year and what I've discovered is that I don't lose much weight, but I do drop body-fat.

To date:

Actual weight lost: 42 pounds (scale reading)
Body-fat% 26.9% --> 11.8%
Gained lean muscle: 13.4 pounds
calculated fat lost: 55.5 pounds

My typical routine:

Racquetball Monday & Wednesday nights (1.75 hours each)
Weight-training on my own 2-3x per week
Training with a trainer 2x per week

Mountain biking 2-3x per week and swimming 2 miles at the gym 2x per week

OR

2 spin classes back-to-back, then swim a mile in the pool, good for 2k of calorie burn, takes 3 hours and done 2x per week.

I mix it up a lot, each week playing it by ear. I average about 12-17 hours of exercise per week and generally take-in about 2,500 calories per day.


At this point, my ultimate ambition is to participate & finish a triathlon.
 
Congratulations on the Journal, you've accomplished so much so far and i'm looking forward to progress pictures.
 
Hi BSL, I told you I would read your journal:D

I didn't know you made such a progress:eek2:

Do you have a time frame for the tri? Have you picked one yet?
BTW, how are you doing with running (you realize you will have to run when doing a tri, right:yelrotflmao:)?

Anyways, I'll check back later...Gotta go to the gym (5K,1 mile swim and NROL).
:hug2:
 
Thanks guys...

Well, I'm going to take today "off" from exercise. I've been doing 1.5-3 hours of exercise for about 5 days straight. Yesterday was upper-body & core workout AND Spin-class/swimming, so I got it all in and everythign is sore...need some time to recover. Also, woke-up all congested and my 3 girls all have some kind of cold...so my hunch is I've got it too. Time to rest.

I just got done in the kitchen creating a killer pasta salad, check it out:

Whole Wheat penne pasta, the stuff with flax, protein, etc. I only used about 2 1/2 cups so it's not a whole lot. Boil about 12 minutes, then put in a large bowl. To that bowl add:

1 Large jar of sun-dried tomato's in Olive oil 1 can olives
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
onions
string beans
brocolli
garlic
seasoning, including some chili oil, pepper & garden spices

I will kep this large bowl in the frig. When I eat it, I'll then add some tuna, or chicken, maybe sprinkle on some cheese...and then put a bit of Italian dressing on it.

In all, it's very nutritious. The whole wheat pasta isn't that evil, it has a very low Glycemic rate because the grain is still whole. But I go easy on the pasta. Most of the bowl is beans & vege's. And beans are widely overlooked as being one of the most complete & packed foods we can eat. Beans are loaded with fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and even a bit of good fats. The sun-dried tomato is all about lycopene & vege, as are the Olives, garlic & brocolli. Add some chicken or tuna and/or cheese....and you have one very complete, well-balanced, nutritious meal. And it's tasty!

Click on pics to enlarge. This is tasty stuff, very Italian too! :D
 

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That looks delicious.
Well, at least somebody is making something healthy. I'm making meatloaf and masted potatoes for my hubby. Just read the nutrition value label and it says that 4 oz. of ground beef =200 cals....and I'm making like 3 pounds:eek::eek:
I'll take a side of clogged arteries with that, please:D
 
What does BSL really stand for? Lets see:

BSL​


Give me a: B

For: Brilliant

Give me a: S

For: Spectacular

Give me a: L

For: Legendary


Brilliant, Spectacular, and Legendary mental performer within Diet and Fitness.

A miraculous and noteworthy self master.

A Masterpiece at work.

=========================================================

I am proud to be your friend, and will try to be by your side as you progress with your goals.

I wish you the best of luck with the journal.


I wish you all the best in life and within fitness, BSL

Chillen
 
Last edited:
BikeSwimLaugh said:
My typical routine:

Racquetball Monday & Wednesday nights (1.75 hours each)
Weight-training on my own 2-3x per week
Training with a trainer 2x per week

Mountain biking 2-3x per week and swimming 2 miles at the gym 2x per week

OR

2 spin classes back-to-back, then swim a mile in the pool, good for 2k of calorie burn, takes 3 hours and done 2x per week.

I mix it up a lot, each week playing it by ear. I average about 12-17 hours of exercise per week and generally take-in about 2,500 calories per day. At this point, my ultimate ambition is to participate & finish a.
Click to expand...

I noticed you cited racquetball.

How's the status of the knee injury ?

You mentioned in an earlier thread that in light of injuring your knee in racquetball and your concern of re-injuring your knee in the future ( and to spend more time on those racquetball evenings with your wife and kids ) that you were thinking about giving up racquetball altogether.

What did you ultimately decide to do in an attempt to reconcile your knee issue with racquetball ?
 
Chillen said:
What does BSL really stand for? Lets see:

BSL​


Give me a: B

For: Brilliant

Give me a: S

For: Spectacular

Give me a: L

For: Legendary


Brilliant, Spectacular, and Legendary mental performer within Diet and Fitness.

A miraculous and noteworthy self master.

A Masterpiece at work.

=========================================================

I am proud to be your friend, and will try to be by your side as you progress with your goals.

I wish you the best of luck with the journal.


I wish you all the best in life and within fitness, BSL

Chillen
Click to expand...

Thank you very much Chillen.....if I ascend to even a mere fraction of your descriptoin of me, I'll have more then succeeded. :beerchug:
 
Wrangell said:
I noticed you cited racquetball.

How's the status of the knee injury ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking Wrangell....

Yes, I cited racquetball...even though I haven't been on the court for a month and I'm not sure if/when I'm going back. To be quite honest, I'm just not mentally at the point where I'm ready to take it off my list of activities. I just can't imagine not playing anymore....so I listed it.

My recovery is going very well, the physical therapist is very impressed with my progress....he says my rapid progress would lend towards my not needing surgery. He explained that the mensicus can heal at different rates based on the trauma/damage to it...since I'm recovering quickly, he's optimistic that I'm healing nicely and this whole thing may be essentially a really bad sprain.

Not to sound pessimistic (sp?), but I'm not certain I'll get off the injury to easily. When I walk, I can still hear/feel a certain clicking in the joint and something, like a bad transmission, isn't quite right. I can't imagine it'll go away over time...so we'll just have to follow the PT and see how things progress & develop.

In the meanwhile, on Friday (yesterday) I returned to my spin-class for the first time since the injury. I think I noted this earlier in my journal. I did the whole hour & 20-minutes w/o problem....but I did notice that even a modest effort drove my HR up to where it used to be at a higher degree of intensity, so I suppose I lost some oomph with my 30-days down. Also (to no surprise) riding 'out of the saddle' proved a bit uncomfortable. The knee wasn't sore afterwards nor today...so I'm hoping it only gets better from here.

The good news is that over the course of these last 30 days I've really hammered on my upper-body and focused my cardio with the swimming. I broke my swimming record by swimmign 4-miles (130 laps across & back in the indoor Olympic pool) and worked the weights between swim days....as a result, I think I made some progress on my chest...and I managed not to gain weight. You may recall how concerned I was that if I stopped with my massive cardio I'd regain weight. What I noticed was a drop in appetite during this less active period.

This made me realize something. The body knows what the balance is; it has a means to know when you're not eating enough and running in a deficit. I can exercise more and eat more, or exercise less and just eat less: the net results are about equal. When the injury cost me the spinning/racquetball...it removed about 8 hours of cardio from my week, which is about 4,600 calories. In the end, I merely had to reduce my daily caloric intake (on average) about 650 calories. It wasn't too difficult, to no surprise I wasn't as hungry. Anyways, now that I have spinning back, I'll get back my 3,200 burn per week....but to really make weight-loss progress, I'll have to lean-out when it comes to replacing those calories.

So it makes me think...is this what it takes? To lose weight I must endure hunger and deprivation? Many dieticians will say "NO, you should not be hungry on a proper diet".....ya know what, I say that's bull. The body knows when it isn't getting enough and it darn well does it's thing to provoke you to eat. You can fool it with a large glass of water and maybe go heavy on the bulky vegetables...but it'll catch up to you sooner or later.

Ya know, I've been crazy-hungry and made myself a HUGE salad, and then had some vegetable soup, and then lots to drink. Yes, my stomach feels full and I can sense the capacity of my stomach being filled....but I can also feel that hunger still driving me. Perhaps I'm just tuned into my body this well, but it's as if I can still feel the low blood sugar and my body saying "Thanks for the salad and all the bulky low-calorie food....but dude; we need us some SUGAR in the blood and until you give it to us, you're going to feel the need to feed. The only thing that seems to work for me is hitting the Dark Chocolate, the stuff with high cocao (not cocoa, cacao)....to some degree it just gets the body to chemically feel what it's chasing to stop the hunger.

Hmm....a lot of this is self-reflection, but maybe someone will read this and it'll be food for thought.

On another note, I've been checking-out knee braces. Despite what we're lead to believe, most my doctor friends are telling me that the braces really won't help or even reduce the liklihood of a recurring injury. Apparently the load is just too much for a brace to handle. My PT-guy says they've done studies and the incidence of injuries was the same for football players who wore braces vs. those who didn't. Go figure. I still plan to get one, if it can lend some degree of stability and help..why not. It's said that the brace, more then anything, just helps remind you that you have a weakness that you should stay aware of.

Wrangell.....if you're still tuned-in....what are your thoughts on braces?

Anyways, tomorrow is my twins birthdays (turning 6) and I have to be up & ready to go to Olivia's Tea House in the morning....oh I just know it's gonna be fabulous!! :D
 
Nice job on the journal BSL. Hope this doesnt mean you wont be making regular appearances in mine anymore... Speaking of which, I should be providing some updates tomorrow as things hopefully slow down a tiny bit with work and life in general.
 
bettyhenes said:
Hi BSL, I told you I would read your journal:D

I didn't know you made such a progress:eek2:

Do you have a time frame for the tri? Have you picked one yet?
BTW, how are you doing with running (you realize you will have to run when doing a tri, right:yelrotflmao:)?

Anyways, I'll check back later...Gotta go to the gym (5K,1 mile swim and NROL).
:hug2:
Click to expand...

OMG.....sorry for not addressing this, didn't mean to ignore it.

I have no time-frame on the triathlon..I just know I wanna do one....it's a "goal". At this point running is simply not part of the equation. My Physical therapist says I'm making great progress and he insists he's going to get me running AND teach me how to properly run. I'm looking forward to that very much.

Right now I can do a spinning class and I'm pretty sure I can bike ride just fine....but I'm still feeling sore on my knee and I don't have complete range of motion. Once I'm fit to run and can run at least 5k, then it's time to start hunting-down a triathlon. I'm told I should start by just doing a "sprint", the shorter distance. I'm not out to win it, just complete it. I know many will laugh, but I'm gonna keep it to fresh-water lakes for now. If this becomes a passion, I'll see about salt-water, but I'll have to train with a group....I am absolutely not comfortable in the ocean, let alone by myself!

Today I spent some time with my buddy the othropedic surgeon. Again, he does arms/hand....but he's seen my MRI's and has examed me. He says I have an unusual tear in my meniscus, it runs all the way from the front to the back. What he figures is that some 23 years ago, with my dirtbike accident, I tore it good...and a month ago playing racquetball I tore it the rest of the way. The sound/noise I hear & feel when I move my knee is a flap in the meniscus being moved around. He says I should just learn to live with it, but if it's a problem they can go in & trim it. He says, based on my recovery, it's very unlikely I tore or seriously injured my ACL....so it's just a super-nasty sprain complicated by a tear in the meniscus. I'll just have to continue with PT to see how things resolve. I'd prefer to avoid surgery, but I'm prepared to do it if it'll help.

Hey Betty....you do the 5k on the treadmill?...and what is NROL?
 
A good day.....

Weight-trained on my own in the home gym for about an hour from 11-12:15, guesstimated at 650 calories burned

Went to Spectrum and took the 5:30-6:30 spinning class, immediately followed-up with swimming a mile in the pool (about 37 minutes of continous swimming). Calorie counter said 1,580 calories for spin/swim.

On a good note, I met with a friend/paint-contractor that hadn't seen me for a year and he was just blown-away with my "change"...he said I used to have a bit pot-belly and double chin...and now he said he couldn't get over the dramatic change in my body. He commented on my "huge" arms, defined legs, etc. I hate to admit it, but it really felt good to hear. It's amazing how our own minds don't allow us to see the difference on account of the change happening so gradual.

I'm really happy with the way things are progressing...as the fat goes away and the muscle builds, it's all coming together and starting to blossom. It also makes a big difference what clothes I wear...if I wear the baggy shorts and a loose shirt, it all just looks big & tenty....but with a fitted shirt and my bike shorts, the look is entirely different; it shows-off the cuts & leaner nature.

The knee is healing, but still sore and I don't have full range of motion. Gotta stay on the therapy and hopefully things will resolve.

Anyways...

Calories "in" estimated at: +2,900
Calories burned: base metabolic -2,380
exercise -2,230

Results: Deficit 1,710
 
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