The Weight update

Last week I had a rough week.. Things in life are not going according to what I want or expected before I moved here so I got down a bit... Is normal, life will test you all the time and see how much you can handle...

Any how.... You are here to check how am I doing with the weight fight right? Let me tell you how I am doing.. No let me show you how I am doing..!

Can you see it? That is a report from the last 90 days.. This shot shows you at my heaviest point during the last 3 months.. And now I am down to 94 kilos..!!!

Yes all the sacrifice is paying off (finally) and the scale started to move down... Or to show numbers less scary..

Now you would like to know how I am doing this? Very easy..(on paper)

1- Find out how many calories you are suppose to eat a day..
2- Don't go over that amount of calories.
3- Exercise...!!
4- Drink lots of water..!! You will pee your fat away..!! And helps control anxiety.

That is very much it... I know is simple right..? But damn is a lot of work not to go over that damn number of calories a day... I can eat 1850 or so a day to lose 400 grams a week... and a lot of times I see myself close to this number after lunch.. I love to eat..!

Here is when I start exercising... And earn my snacks and extra meals.. Like today I was on the bike for 1 hour doing some hard work and earned another 1000 extra calories that I could eat.. So chicken and baked potato for dinner were delicious..!

I would recommend you to use +MyFitnessPal to track your calories intake and to track your physical activities I use +Strava  you can link this two together so no need to go and do manual writing there.. If you own an indoor bike I suggest you check #gozwift for motivation..

Well there you go friends prove that when you try hard and have some discipline you can do anything you want..!

See you next week for another update..!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Hello Sunrise..!

I am on windbreak duty on Sunday's as I show my wife a bit around this part of the world.. She is new to cycling and "allergic" to hills so I have to select the routes for her..

Some of our views today..

A great sunrise to say good morning from Comber, Northern Ireland

It was a mostly flat route.. All along a lake that by now I should know the name but I am all that concerned about it.. Then we have the sun rising over some little bumps in the distance.

After the sun finally came up we could appreciate the beauty of the country side around us...

This was a route from Castlereagh to Comber and back following some main routes early enough to be out of traffics harm..

In and out after all was done was some 48 km and a new record distance for my wife..! Also this was her fastest ride yet..!

Me? I am training to become stronger as the cold weather is setting in... Lots of schedule training and also trying to reach my distance goal for the year.. 10.000 km.. 7625 km so far this year.. I will get there???

Thanks for reading and feel free to follow my cycling activities HERE or our club at Strava

Thanks for reading and sharing

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Combo Saturday..!

Hello everyone..! Missed me? No? Oh well... Life this time sucks to me and this is why I didn't update before... Don't worry I am fine just can't find a real job in a normal place at normal hours..

But you don't come here to listen to my problems.. You come here to forget yours for a few minutes so let me help you...

Last week(end) was a busy one..! Man I am still tired from it..! i didn't ride a very looong ride but it was the accumulation of rides from all week... Rode like 300 km or so.. (remember I want to get to 10.000 km by Dec 31 Th)

here are some shots from my weekend..

Look at how beautiful Northern Ireland is when the sun shines..

Lakes, fields and a blue sky

If you like dirt routes you can ask local people to point you the right way..

That was my Saturday morning.. group ride where I collapsed at the end and ended up riding by myself after a wrong turn and my riding buddies went on.. it was fine.. I was already close to home.. I finished the day with some 89 km and 800 + meters of climbing.  I you want to see more details of the rides follow the LINK (Strava)

Afternoon? A completely different story but as exciting as the morning in different ways, look:

That is my riding partner.. My little friend.. My son.. He just learned how to ride his bike and he is all over it..! The weather was nice so we went to a close by park to explore and verify what some locals told us...

We found this at the park..

I never rode on a track before... And I couldn't do it really this day either since a "futbol" match was going on in the middle of it.. Spectators were watching from the side with little kids and I didn't want to get into any accidents.

We still managed a lap at a very slow pace and either Felix or me like the banks that much..

Our first experience at the track wasn't great but we said that we are going to come back and use it a bit more another time.. 

We had a great Saturday and after all the activities outdoor we came home and had a family dinner and watch some TV before heading to bed and rest for another day out the next day...

Hope you enjoyed as much as we did reading this little story of our weekend..

See you Sunday..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

I Zwift

Did you ever see this before?

I am almost sure most of the answers to my question are yes..!

Just in case if you have no idea of what it is or not sure about it here is a quick explanation of Zwift in my own words:

Is the most amazing social program for indoor training invented since the rollers were invented who knows when..! 

I would add to that description that each person has their own taste and that if you you don't like it cool..! But remember this..: Before you scratch it off of your list.. TRY IT..!!

Seriously is not like anything else you used before for indoor training... And the community is amazing..! Lots of support from other members that adds a lot more to the whole experience..

I think that is a good reason itself to go and ride indoors right? If that is not enough this is why I discovered Zwift to begin with..

Hospital bed and a cast (plaster for my UK friends) on my leg... I got into an accident last year, actually about a year back now... Due to this accident I had surgery and 3 months of bed time or something like this.. I don't remember exactly..
Thanks to this I had to be off the bike as well for over 6 months.. I remember that the first ride outdoors after the accident was exactly 6 months after it.. How? I am riding with some friends that were missing me for this long.. As we were riding the subject came up and we did some calculations and that was the result..

Now from the pic on the hospital to this one was "only" 2 1/2 months:

That is how long I wasn't allowed to even attempt to step on my leg.. Here I was allowed to put partial weight on it and start spinning without any or much tension on the trainer.. (somewhere in January 2015, Yeah Happy New Year to you too!!)

The first couple of rides were slow and short... And I used the normal sources to stay on the bike and do my recovery as well as i could without falling off the bike because of how bored I was...

Videos, music, movies and TV series and cartoons were involved in this rehab.. But as the time was increasing the level of boring trainer workouts/recovering time was increasing with it..

By this time I always kept using +Strava to keep track of my activities for medical reasons and because like most of the cyclists out there I like to share what I do. (or brag?) anyways I started to see some of my friends riding in the Pacific Ocean... Remember The Zwift island?

And my curiosity kicked in.. Started asking the typical questions.... I think number 1 question was... What are you doing there? Another holiday? Escaping Winter? and that kind of questions.. As the answers came back the curiosity grew with them.. And don't forget I had no other choice but to ride on the trainer, I was looking for anything to keep me motivated..!!

Research started and it seemed easy enough to sign up for it... It was a learning process for both Zwift and me... At the beginning only people with power meters could join so it was hard to receive an invite.. And I bet more than one is going to remember the checking your e-mail for answer more then once in a day..

I was lucky I owned a power meter... And they didn't ask what kind it was (Heart Rate) because at the very beginning they didn't support this one... So when they asked if I had a PM I answer yes and left as that.. A few day later I had my e-mail...

Who remembers this day?

Oh I was so happy..!!! Like a kid with a new toy..! I already had the ANT+ dongle and was waiting to set this up..!

Once everything was set it was time to play..!!! Since that day at the start of February till today I had ups and downs.. Just like a bike ride, but I always come back..

During the Spring and Summer I didn't use it as much but I still used it at least once a week... I even missed it some days... I was looking forward to rainy days.. By the way I have plenty of those here in Belfast, so my riding time never actually decreased because of the weather... Life got in the way as I started working and other thing happened but is always nice to know that you have that option to just walk into your pain cave and get a quality workout without living your house...

Since the start till now I did this much on Zwift:

Not bad for a guy with a broken leg right? And if you look at the whole number for the year..

That is almost half of my total riding was done on the trainer..!!! But the most important part is that thanks to Zwift and my attitude of never giving today I can show you this number and also can tell you that I can walk almost completely normal..(have a little limp, but almost nothing) Doctors said that my recovery was extremely quick..! That my leg movement and strength is great and that they are happy with my results..

Results? A happy husband, happy father and to top it all off A HAPPY CYCLIST..!

So because of this I want to say thanks to Zwift.. You were big part of my recovery..! You kept me going and motivate to keep moving my legs and also to everyone that forms part of the community online.. Special thanks to all of them for the support and always willing to answer a question or share the common wisdom..

Thank you all..!!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy

Steady is the key..?

Yes is that time of the week where you see this on +Twitter about this guy living in Northern Ireland trying to get back in shape... What guy?

This one..!!! Remember?

If you are not all that familiar with the story and want to catch up look between the previous posts is some related (each week an update) about how I am trying to lose some weight and most important to keep it off..!!

So today was the day I picked to step on the scale and see how the last couple of days were reflecting on my weight... Here is a report in the way of a picture to show whats going on..:

Can you see the progress? Last week I was at 96.2 kilos and this week?? 95.4 kilos..!!! Exciting isn't it? If you are not a person that has struggle with weight for most of your adult life you won't get it.. But thanks for reading any ways...

NOTE: you see this is one more reason to use +MyFitnessPal for tracking your progress or going the other way... Pictures and reports help you visualize where you are and where you want to be.

So this is a lost of 800 grams from last week to this one..!!! Almost double what my weekly goal is..!! I am happy with this new number on the scale..! It brings me closer to my goal..
What my goal is? originally I was thinking of 80 kilos but giving it a second thought... I might split it.. and stop at 85 kilos... A day at the time is what is going to work best.. Either way I am closer now then a month and a half ago when this "fight" started..

How did I manage this drop of weight? Here it goes:

- Discipline keep my portions at normal size and write everyone down, no diet, just control.

- Options I could drive Felix to school, I am walking with him every morning.. (45 to 60 minutes) and the dog loves it as well..

- Water at some point last week I started drinking a large glass of water every time I went pee, 2 reason for this behavior. 1 wasn't drinking enough to begin with. 2 helps me understand is not hunger but appetite what I constantly have. I can eat 24/7 no issues.

- Exercise sorry there is no other way, no magic spell.. It demands you getting up and moving.. I really enjoy riding my bicycle as you can see on the rest of my blog. last week I rode somewhere around 200 km in 7:30 hours over the 7 days. You can check my profile at +Strava add to this that lots of this cycling is done indoors using #gozwift.

And as you can see I am doing something that everyone can do.. it is a matter of options and will to chose the right path..

Now what way are you going to go? 

Is up to you. And you only..!

Thanks for reading and see you at the next post or update.

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Friends & Family

We are opening the weekend with a nice early and balmy Saturday ride, after all the name of the blog is the Weekend Report right?

We met at our Saturday spot of start at the usual 07:45 am, hence the name of the riding group is called the 0745 Rouleurs.. After a little talk and funny comments and sharing a few news and info the guys decided to leave for ride..

This time we broke the routine of our traditional Saturday run to Harrison's and headed in another direction.. We went to Lisburn, we headed for a lot of ups and downs on the country side..

The profile of the ride today looked like this:

Well at least mine look this way, I see that some of the guys went different ways after the coffee stop, I missed a few more climbs but to be honest I glad I did.. :)

Speaking of coffee stop... Look at what we found at the place...:

The country side looked nice under the clouds and fog in the distance today, but unfortunately I was very busy trying to keep up with the others to take pictures of our landscape for the day.. You will have to trust me when I tell you that the routes were great..! Almost traffic free and a constant rolling terrain where the CX bike and my legs had a lot of "FUN" 

Where were we? Here look...

And if you want to take a closer look at where we were here is the link from Strava. Speaking of +Strava don't forget to join us there... Our club The Weekend Report

So basically that was my morning with my riding buddies and friends, great morning..! Thanks..!

The afternoon was a different story, wife and daughter wanted to go to some sort exposition by the Titanic Center and the little man wanted to ride his bike... So we combined everything..

Daughter and wife to the expo thingui... Have fun..!!!

Little man, dog and me for a bike ride... Well Felix on his bike and the dog and me chasing him from behind..

Where did we go? Is a path that runs by the Lagan river that is ideal for everyone that likes jogging, cycling or plain and simple walk in peace... But you know what.. Let me show you our afternoon..

Felix having his first taste of cobble stones..

After a short while riding on them... He started picking the easier line.. Smart kid..!!

Where is this place? Maybe the +Titanic word will help you understand?

It is an impressive building and example of modern architecture 

After a spin around the building and watching some kids pull out a few tricks on some BMX's we headed back to meet the rest of the family...

Felix already knew his way back, easier way back..

While waiting for the family Felix was trying to pull some of the moves he saw from the kids earlier.. Me? I just sat back relax and enjoy the views...

And this one has to be one of my best shots of the day.. I give you the Titanic Center from Belfast.

So that was our Saturday.. Now is just sitting and enjoying the peace of home after a nice home made meal and dinner together...

Hope you like this mini adventures that we take around Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland.

As usual thanks for reading and see you at the next update..!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

And a year after...

How to start this is a bit of work for me.. I was going over notes and pictures from almost a year ago and is a bit of mixed feelings about it...
So what about I open it with a picture of that day that for sure changed the course of my life in more then one aspect..

Yes that is me sitting on the side walk and on the back you can see my bike laying on the floor... MY BIKE LAYING ON THE FLOOR..!!!! As you can see also my pants are ripped.. This sure looks like a bad combination for a picture...

Yes!! I got hit by a car..!! Now please don't panic this was a year ago and this is part of the story of how it happened.. Where and how far I came along since that day...

Soon after the top picture was taken I got my first and hope last ever ambulance ride...

People tells me that I look very cheerful for what had just happened to me... My answer to all of them? "I just got hit by a car and I am talking to you" Do you see how lucky I am? Come on..! A car turn into me from the opposite side of the route as I was riding on the bike lane ... The lady didn't see me and run right into me..

What did I get? How much damage to my body? After the paramedics took a look at me and asked me all the traditional questions I told them all I have is something wrong with my right knee..

And the bike? Well the bike didn't look too bad at that moment...

Later on after a few months of resting in my garage and finally a visit to the local bike shop for full examination gave me the full story of how much (£) damage was done to my poor bike..!! By the way it was a brand new bike with less then 200 km on it when this happened... But £500+ later the bike works well now.. Too long to list all the parts that were changed..

Me? I had a bit more work and longer rehab time then the bike..

So what happened? What did I break on my leg? What was next?
To be honest I knew something was wrong with the knee because it hurt when I was trying to make it straight or bend it... But I could never guess it was this bad..

Doctors words that day: Well you have a tibia plateau fracture, you have to stay with us till Tuesday when we going to operate to fix your leg... This was a Friday afternoon...!!!! And to me they were speaking Chinese I had no idea what a tibia plateau fracture was... Or how could this affect me.. Now I am sort of an expert in the subject..

From that Friday to the Tuesday before entering the surgery room I had a lot in my mind, I am almost 40 and never went under the knife before... I never had a broken bone before.. I never even got a stitch on me before this time.. I was really scared.. You never know how you are going to react to the anesthesia.. So a lot of weird ideas went on and on in my head.. I was extremely emotional before the surgery and even asked my wife and kids to leave because i was crying like a baby.. Didn't want the kids to see me that way... The little man still remembers that day and says...: Papi i was sad for you.. I never saw you crying before.. (hold on I feel another nut in my stomach)

The moment arrived..! Went to surgery...! They put me to sleep.. 3 hours later I woke up and asked one of the nurses there... "Was everything OK?" Yes..!! Uffff...!!! Relieve finally..!! My leg was there and I was ready to be moved back to the room..

 
And most likely i have a big smile because of all the morphine I was taking.. I really didn't like that stuff..! Made me so sick that I preferred to deal with the pain of the after surgery instead of feeling like puking and light headed all the time..

now it was time to get the new cast on it.. My daughter asked me to get a pink one so Why not?

After all I told one of the male nurses I am man enough to carry it without a second thought in my head... "What about you?" He just smiled...

This was Wednesday already and they were planning to keep me there till the following Tuesday at least... I told them what do I have to be able to do for you people to let me go home??
Physio people said " If you are able to go up and down the stair on crutches you can go"
Me: Give me the crutches...(Thursday) I was hopping around the room and going to the bathroom..
Friday around noon I gave it a try to go up and down the stairs.. Friday night I was home reunited with my family..

Kids and I really happy..!!!

All this situation showed me that there is some really good people out there.. Around me and some others that I didn't even know I could count with...

I got lots of presents from local people... And some others came from far away..

And some more kept coming in the mail...

Got tons of e-mails from others wishing me well.. Some local visits.. My club stopped by a few times to check on me during the rides..

they picked me up and took me out for coffee and lunch... Seriously in this bad situations is when you know who you can really count on..

People from USA a former cycling club of mine got worry and asked what they could do.. My online friends also offer help.. (even monetary help, Thank you!)

My local club? They deserve a post of their own and I will get to it eventually.. But this far all I have to say to all of them is thank you sooooo much..!!

Now you can see the damage done by the lack of exercise when you are hurt at this level...

You see when they got that cast on me it was tight to my leg... I lost 10 kilos during my time in bed..Most of it was muscle and I was extremely scared of gaining weight that I was eating only like 1500 calories a day.. Or not even..

Finally after 6 weeks of the surgery the cast came out and I could finally see my leg and take a proper shower or bath or at least was that leg..

I know not a pretty sight but believe me it was so nice to get that thing off my leg and start some sort of rehab..!!

Now they took the cast off and they put a hinged knee braise that allowed me to start bending the leg to certain degree... But not allow to put any weight on it yet.. but at least I could start doing some movement with the leg and start getting some mobility back in it..

Beginning of December the doctors allowed me to start putting partial weight on it while still on the crutches.. This was another mile stone for me as this gave me a bit, just a little bit more of stability to move around the house and not been confined to the first floor all the time.. Still had to be extremely careful with each step and think my every move before taking it..

Finally the New Year and Christmas and my birthday passed.. Really not the best holidays ever but still managed to have it nice for us... My wife deserves a monument..! All the stuff that she went through is amazing..!! I have it good with her..!

And January was when they allowed me to start doing some little cycling again.. Little and no pressure.. But that was one of the happiest moments as I put my leg over the bike and did a few pedal strokes to see how it felt..

Since that day till yesterday was a none stop rehab program on the bike... I came a long way since last year this time around.. A lot of work was involved in getting back on my feet.. It wasn't easy, not for me or my family... Again have to say thanks to my wife for carrying with almost all the weight of having a family..

Besides the sweat tears and even some blood (cut my self cooking, smile life is beautiful) I can say that yesterday when I went to the hospital and they answer all my questions and told me that I basically have to learn how to live with all the feelings I have (pain, numbness, tightness, cramps, a little limp and more pain... Did I mention pain?)

I was finally discharged..!!!

I am free to keep going with my life as normal as it will get.. lots of limitations but that is not the point..! 

Life is like riding a bicycle.. If you stop moving forward you will fall or get stuck in the same place...

So keep pedaling, keep moving forward, keep riding the bicycle of life no matter how hard it gets..

Thanks for reading 

See you at the next post..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Set back? What set back?

Yes is that time of the week when I step on the scale and see what the result of a week of working out and writing down my meals and snacks (add drinks and anything that contains calories) did for me..
As you noticed already I am not using the word diet on any of my posts, maybe a hashtag to bring in more readers trying to do the same in this fight against the fat or overweight... Or maybe someone just trying to stay in shape and looking for a way of doing so without actually going into a "DIET"

Let's do a quick recap using that image.. This is week 4 already since I restart this journey against my weight.. And you can see how the weights goes up and down all the time.. Is normal..
My goal is to lose 500 grams a week.. Not a crazy number, but a bit on the high side of expectations, you set your goal low is too easy.. too high and is too hard.. Both ways are easy to get away and frustrate and then quit..

So if you clicked here for the first time you have an idea of where this post is coming from by now and what it is about as well... To have the full story just go back to previous posts and you will get the full scoop of this fat fighter..

Well I know you want to know what happened when I stepped on the scale this morning right? What do you think happened? Remember last week weight? OK I help you 97 kilos... It was a bit of a set back numbers ways... OK, OK the number on the scale this week was......

96.2 kilos...!!! I hope you get my excitement !! Seriously is almost a kilo in a week.. That almost put me back on track to lose the 500 gram a week.. 4 weeks = 2 kilos... Started at 97.8 kilos and I am down to 96.2 kilos so is a lost of 1.6 kilos in 4 weeks..!! 400 grams a week thus far..!!! I can live with that..

Want to know how I did it?

Want to know what my tools are?

For those that answer yes here is the answers:

Watching what I am eating... Seriously, write everything down I use +MyFitnessPal for it and is working. I eat whatever I want whenever I want... (portions is the key!)

The other aspect of it is to work out.. Sorry there is no magic pill... I don't have a secret formula.. It demands you to get moving.. To track my physical activities I use +Strava  last week I rode 369 km on my bike and walked somewhere around 20 km... Yes I spend a lot of time working out.. Or better say moving around.

But you want to know why I move around so much? Because I like to eat..! And eat a lot sometimes..! So I earn my "extra portions" by working out.. is like a reward program..

Example: want that extra slice of pizza tonight? If you are anything like me the answer is yes.. OK.. EARN IT..!! average pizza slice is like 400 calories.. This means a walk with the dog for 1 hour.. See what I did there? Killed 3 birds with one stone! Walked the dog, exercise and earn my extra slice of pizza..!!

Now if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment and if you think this can help someone you know share it..

Thanks for reading 

See you next week?

Pablo 

The Weekend Report Guy

Looong busy weekend

Lets start by saying that it was busy because of my own ideas..I didn't really have to do what I tried to do over a 3 day period.. But come on..! Anyone that has a cyclist friend or family member is used to us going after goals that on the eyes of normal human beings are completely out of reach and even a bit crazy at times..

So I spent my weekend riding a lot... Not as much as I wanted to get done but still a lot you can ask my +Strava friends about it.. Or my family that was going to the garage to check on me on regular bases.... While I was doing this...

So I spent a lot of time riding the trainer on Friday and a bit more on Saturday.. On Friday I did like 130 km on it and Saturday just 50 because family was hungry for some "empanadas" (will make a full recipe and add it to that page)

How I manage to spend so many hours on the trainer without going out of my mind? You can say thanks to Zwift for that.. Very fun and I fully recommend it. One of these days I write my view of it..

On Sunday I went out to meet the local heroes... What do I mean? Remember the 0745 Rouleurs?

Well this guys went out in a 500 km, 3 day adventure around Northern Ireland and part of the Republic of Ireland (I bet if it wasn't a ferry ride involved they would go to Scotland as well) and during the days coming to this event they put together a charity and raised £43.000 for 4 different ones..!!! 

The event was great and everything went great, they had fair weather, kind of excellent for this part of the world.. They had great people supporting them (family and friends)

So we set out to go and meet them on the last day, we is the ones that stayed behind for different reasons.. Sunday morning 9:30 am we left Belfast heading North to receive the guys and help the tired legs on the last stretch coming home...

We rode up the coast for about 65 km or something like that to meet them and score them into Belfast.. It was a great thing to see like 50 riders all together riding into the city for a great cause..

Picture not from this event since I was busy talking with the boys... or busy doing whatever I was doing..  But you get the idea..

Coming into Belfast was great and the families and friends were waiting at a local place to welcome everyone... Was very nice to see... I would say was easy over a 100 people there welcoming, cheering and clapping as the riders rolled in..

So by the end of my 3 or 4 days of riding I had 369 km ridden.. felt short on my quest of conquering the 500 km but I can tell you that it was a great weekend..!

Thanks for reading and stay close..! More stories coming soon

Pablo Alves

The Weekend Report Guy