Week 4, Day 4

Weight: 257 lbs.

Ride: 19.8 miles
Time: 1 hour 23 minutes 36.19 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Conditions: no wind

Calories burned: 1,635.32

First food: 9:55 a.m.
Last food: 5:00 p.m.
Exceptions: Post-ride coffee with skim milk.

Week 4, Day 3

Weight: 260 lbs.

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 15.94 seconds
Pace: 14.3 miles per hour
Conditions: W wind

Calories burned: 1,477.15

First food: 9:02 a.m.
Last food: 5:15 p.m.
Exceptions: Pre-ride coffee with skim milk.

Note: Due to problems with my bicycle, followed by a failed car battery, I took yesterday off from the diet/exercise program. However, I did follow all of the rules of the diet itself.

Week 4, Day 2

Weight: 260 lbs.

Ride: 20.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 25 minutes 53.41 seconds
Pace: 14.0 miles per hour
Conditions: W wind

Calories burned: 1,693.80

First food: 9:39 a.m.
Last food: 5:15 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 4, Day 1

Weight: 260 lbs.
Belly: 46.0"

Ride: 17.0 miles
Time: 1 hour 11 minutes 57.46 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Conditions: N wind

Calories burned: 1,418.06

First food: 9:55 a.m.
Last food: 5:14 p.m.
Exceptions: post-ride coffee with non-fat milk.

Week 3, Day 7

Weight: 261 lbs.
Belly: 46.5"

Ride: 19.1 miles
Time: 1 hour 21 minutes 23.52 seconds
Pace: 14.1 miles per hour
Conditions: ESE wind

Calories burned: 1,601.46

First food: 9:19 a.m.
Last food: 5:08 p.m.
Exceptions:

Note: scale says I lost 8 pounds from yesterday to today. I think I might be a little lighter due to some water loss. However, I suspect my scale is not accurate. No way did I really lose 8 pounds. Yesterday's weight was oddly high, too.

Week 3, Day 6

Weight: 269 lbs.
Belly: 46.5"

Ride: 30 miles
Time: 2 hour 8 minutes 53.18 seconds
Pace: 14.1 miles per hour
Conditions: N wind

Calories burned: 2,608.27

First food: 10:14 a.m.
Last food: 5:08 p.m.
Exceptions: pre-ride prunes

Note: inner-tube on back tire blew out 7 miles from Davis. Walked a mile before a truck picked me up and drove me home. I fixed my tube at home, but put bike in shop to have wobbly rear wheel checked.

Week 3, Day 5

Weight: 265 lbs.
Belly: 46.5"

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes 51.43 seconds
Pace: 14.0 miles per hour
Conditions: strong SW wind

Calories burned: 1,505.56

First food: 9:50 a.m.
Last food: 5:25 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 3, Day 4

Weight: 264 lbs.
Belly: 46.5"

Ride: 16.8 miles
Time: 1 hour 10 minutes 59.15 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Conditions: NW wind

Calories burned: 1,419.88

First food: 8:31 a.m.
Last food: 4:38 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 3, Day 3

Weight: 263 lbs.
Belly: 46.5"

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 16.09 seconds
Pace: 14.3 miles per hour
Conditions: light WSW wind

Calories burned: 1,474.27

First food: 10:34 a.m.
Last food: 5:28 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 3, Day 2

Weight: 265 lbs.

Ride: 20.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 26 minutes 51.19 seconds
Pace: 14.0 miles per hour
Conditions: light WNW wind

Calories burned: 1,746.44

First food: 9:04 a.m.
Last food: 5:28 p.m.
Exceptions: Pre-ride half banana

Week 3, Day 1

Weight: 266 lbs.

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes 30.00 seconds
Pace: 14.1 miles per hour
Conditions: no wind

Calories burned: 1,511.24

First food: 9:35 a.m.
Last food: 4:15 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 7

Weight: 270 lbs.

Ride: 18.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 19 minutes 2.25 seconds
Pace: 14.0 miles per hour
Conditions: light WNW wind

Calories burned: 1,642.29

First food: 8:35 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 7

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 2.25 seconds
Pace: 14.4 miles per hour
Conditions: no wind

Calories burned: 1,513.51

First food: 11:02 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 6

Weight: 270 lbs.

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 2.25 seconds
Pace: 14.4 miles per hour
Conditions: no wind

Calories burned: 1,513.51

First food: 11:02 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 5

Weight: 270 lbs.

Ride: 20.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 27 minutes 2.25 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Conditions: mild north wind

Calories burned: 1,779.40

First food: 9:05 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 4

Weight: 270 lbs.

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 11 minutes 2.25 seconds
Pace: 15.0 miles per hour
Conditions: mild north wind

Calories burned: 1,452.15

First food: 8:15 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 3

Weight: 271 lbs.

Ride: 15.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 6 minutes 0.21 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Conditions: moderate south wind

Calories burned: 1,354.89

First food: 9:12 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions:

Week 2, Day 2

Weight: 271 lbs.

Ride: 27.3 miles
Time: 1 hour 44 minutes 44.79 seconds
Pace: 15.6 miles per hour
Conditions: light north wind

Calories burned: 2,155.50

First food: 11:15 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions: pre-ride banana

Week 2, Day 1

Weight: 273 lbs.

Ride: 17.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 10 minutes 33.33 seconds
Pace: 15.0 miles per hour
Conditions: stiff south wind

Calories burned: 1,447.61

First food: 10:00 a.m.
Last food: 5:40 p.m.
Exceptions: pre-ride banana

Week 1, Day 7

Weight: 273 lbs.

Ride: 16.4 miles
Time: 1 hour 4 minutes 45.68 seconds
Pace: 15.2 miles per hour
Conditions: no wind

Calories burned: 1,344.21

First food: 8:44 a.m.
Last food: 5:59 p.m.
Exceptions: None

Week 1, Day 6

Weight: 273 lbs.

Ride: 20.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 25 minutes 25.30 seconds
Pace: 14.5 miles per hour
Conditions: Slight north wind

Calories burned: 1,757.81

First food: 8:16 a.m.
Last food: 5:59 p.m.
Exceptions: None

Week 1, Day 5

Weight: 274 lbs.

Ride: 17.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 9 minutes 53.80 seconds
Pace: 14.9 miles per hour
Conditions: Slight southwest wind

Calories burned: 1,452.91

First food: 9:18 a.m.
Last food: 5:54 p.m.
Exceptions: None

Week 1, Day 4

Weight: 277 lbs.

Ride: 17.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 9 minutes 36.48 seconds
Pace: 15.2 miles per hour
Calories burned: 1,468.82

First food: 8:00 a.m.
Last food: 5:54 p.m.
Exceptions: None

Week 1, Day 3

Weight: 277 lbs.

Ride: 15.9 miles
Time: 1 hour 6 minutes 0.27 seconds
Pace: 14.5 miles per hour
Calories burned: 1,384.88

First food: 9:10 a.m.
Last food: 5:58 p.m.
Exceptions: 7:30 a.m., pre-bike ride banana.

Week 1, Day 2

Weight: 279 lbs.

Ride: 17.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes 22.59 seconds
Pace: 14.0 miles per hour
Calories burned: 1,585.09

First food: 9:45 a.m.
Last food: 5:55 p.m.
Exceptions: 7:30 a.m., pre-bike ride half banana.

Fruit is always good

I played in a poker tournament this afternoon at Cache Creek Casino, which is 45 minutes from my house. When I was knocked out -- on the final table bubble I dumbly reraised all-in with pocket Fours and was crushed by pocket Jacks -- it was 5:25 p.m. and I was hungry. The problem was that I can't eat anything once 6 p.m. tolls. There are a bunch of restaurants at Cache Creek, but because I can't eat breads or dairy on the Bicycle Diet, I couldn't think of anything quick which I wanted, there. (But for the diet, I would have had a hamburger and fries.)

So I got in my car and started driving back home. As I pulled into Esparto, I saw a roadside fruit stand. I bought a $3 bag of cherries. I was going to get some apricots, too, but they were quite pricey. I then sat in the car next to the fruit vendor and munched down most of my cherries, which were excellent. When my clock read 6 p.m. I still had four cherries left. I didn't break my diet and left them for later.

I'll probably feel pretty hungry when I go to bed in an hour. That's not all bad, as it is quite normal and healthy to sleep on an empty stomach and wake up hungry in the morning. The only problem now is that I'm not used to that. In a few weeks, I will be.

LESSON LEARNED

I knew I was going to be playing poker away from home all afternoon. I should have planned ahead and packed a late meal which I could have eaten at the casino. To succeed at the Bicycle Diet, I need to be responsible for my decisions and actions. The reason people get fat is because they act like children and don't think about the consequences of what they are putting in their bodies. A part of being an adult is planning ahead. That is the lesson learned, here.

Week 1, Day 1

Weight: 282 lbs.

Ride: 17.7 miles
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes 47.75 seconds
Pace: 14.2 miles per hour
Calories burned: 1,602.14

First food: 10:08 a.m.
Last food: 5:59 p.m.

Money on the line: $30

The Punishment Program

The Bicycle Diet involves both carrot and stick. Getting out and riding a bike, eating proper meals and enjoying them and losing weight -- those are the carrots. This is the stick: burning money.

Each Monday, you need to take out three $10 bills and place them where you can see them when you record your basic measurements each day. On top of each $10 bill, you need to place a book of matches. As the weeks go by and you follow the diet, you will have large stacks of tens.

The first $10 bill stack is to remind you to follow all of the dietary rules, including what not to eat, when not to eat and how much time you must let pass between meals. If you violate any of the dietary rules (without the best of reasons), you must burn all of the $10 bills in your dietary stack. If you have not broken a rule for 10 weeks, the stack will have $100 in it. That will be a severe punishment for eating a bowl of breakfast cereal or downing a Big Mac which comes in a bun or eating ice cream.

The second $10 bill stack is to remind you to follow the exercise rule: get on your bicycle and ride for at least one hour each day. If you fail to ride your bike and you don't have a great reason, you will have to burn all the tens in the second stack. If you burned your stack 2 weeks earlier, it will only be $20. If you forgot to ride one day after 23 weeks, that mistake will cost you $230.

The third $10 bill stack is to remind you to take your three basic measurements (your weight; your time and distance of your bike ride; and your times of your first and last meals) every day. If you fail to write one or more of these metrics down any day -- and there is no good reason not to do so every day -- you will have to burn your third stack or tens.

The idea here is a harsh one: there is nothing worse than burning money. It's brutally painful and wasteful. Giving money away that you need is much less painful. Buying alcohol for a drunkard is less of a waste than burning money. It is a powerful incentive to stick to the requirements of the Bicycle Diet.

When your 52 weeks are up, and you have large stacks of cash -- $10 times 3 times 52 is $1,560 -- you should take some of that money and buy yourself some nice new clothes which fit your new body.

The Basic Measurements

To follow the Bicycle Diet, you will need to keep a record of all of the following every day:

1. Your weight;
2. The time and distance you rode; and
3. The time of your first and last caloric intake.

Also, if you violate any of the rules of the Bicycle Diet, you need to write down exactly what rule or rules you violated, and if there was a reason, write down just what it was.

It's a pain in the ass to weigh in every day. However, doing so will be very rewarding as the pounds come off. Losing weight, looking better, feeling better, fitting into clothes more easily and so on will encourage you to follow the rules of the Bicycle Diet for one year's time; and then hopefully following the eating and exercise rules of the post-diet program.

The Basic Exercise Rules

The Bicycle Diet, as its name implies, is one which requires you to ride your bicyle every day. If you cannot ride outdoors for some reason, that might mean riding an exercycle at home or at a gym. Either way, you have to ride every single day, unless very unusual circumstances make it impossible.

If you are travelling on business or you're on vacation, for example, plan ahead to find a gym which has an exercycle available for your use. If you normally ride your bicycle, but a windstorm or rain or snow or some other weather problem makes it impossible, have a back-up plan involving a stationary bike.

HOW MUCH TO RIDE

The ideal amount you need to ride every day is one hour. If you are a slow rider, that might mean only 12 miles or so. If you are fast, and you probably aren't if you're fat, that could mean 20 miles or so. As you get into better shape, as your legs get stronger and you lose weight, it gets easier and easier to go faster. Three months into the Bicycle Diet, you should be going at least 2-3 miles faster per hour.

As I start this program, I have no trouble riding for one hour. However, if that is too hard for you, then start out riding for just 15 minutes. Do that every day for a week. Your second week, add 15 minutes, so you will ride (at a comfortable pace) for 30 minutes. Your third week ride 45 minutes a day. From your fourth week on, ride one hour.

If your goal is to eventually ride a long ride, say 100 km or 100 miles, you will have to slowly increase how much you ride 6 days a week, and add in a longer ride one day each week. For example, if you start out riding 16 miles a day, you might ride 20 miles on Saturday. Then every Saturday thereafter, you could add 4 miles to your long ride. After 10 weeks, you would have added 40 miles and your Saturday ride would be 60 miles (which is about 100 kilometers).

That's the same basic method for training for a marathon, having one long run day each week and adding to it slowly. Yet one great advantage of bicycling over running is that you can add mileage and not take time off to recover from your longer rides. As you run more and more, you need to take more and more days off to recover. When I was training for my marathons and my long run got up to over 20 miles, I would usually only run 3 days those weeks.

The Bicycle Diet program does not involve any long rides. To follow it strictly, you simply need to ride one hour each day. Keep this in mind, though: being on the bike for an hour and riding for an hour are not the same thing. If you end up hitting red lights and stopping at stop signs or you see a friend and stop for a chat, you are not riding during that time. The hour, regardless of your pace, is only counted when you are pedaling.

Because you want to keep pedaling, you want to burn calories, my recommendation is to ride in a place where there is no traffic and no stop signs. Where I live, we have good bike lanes in town. However, in town I have to stop every few blocks. My preference is to bike out of town and ride on untrafficked rural roads.

The Basic Diet Rules

My diet program is one that I know works. It worked very well for me a few years back, helping me to lose about 85 pounds in 6-8 months. It isn't easy to follow, but for a year or so, it's doable.

There are two basic restrictions to the diet: 1) restricting the times of the day when I can eat; and 2) restricting some foods.

TIME OF DAY

One of the reasons I am fat (and I think a major reason why so many Americans are fat) is I eat all day long, including a lot of food in the hour or two before I go to bed. The Bicycle Diet starts with a simple clock: No calories may be consumed before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on a normal day.

Exceptions can be made in special circumstances. For example, if I'm travelling or at a dinner party with friends or some other oddity changes my schedule, it's okay to break the rules for a day. But otherwise, the time of day decides the outer bounds of when I can eat. I need to plan my meals to fit into that eating window.

Every 7 days for the following 11 weeks, the window closes by 30 minutes. The second week of the diet, for example, I will be able to eat between only 8:15 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. After 12 weeks, only four hours a day will be open for caloric intake. This is the time schedule.

Week 1 -- 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Week 2 -- 8:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Week 3 -- 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Week 4 -- 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Week 5 -- 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Week 6 -- 9:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Week 7 -- 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Week 8 -- 9:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Week 9 -- 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Week 10 -- 10:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Week 11 -- 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Week 12 -- 10:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Week 13 -- 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

For the 40 weeks following, the time schedule will remain the same as it is in Week 13.

The idea of restricting the hours of eating is threefold: 1) to limit the total calories which possibly can be consumed each day; 2) to get one's body used to fasting. One of the things I hear a lot of fat people say, and I have said myself, is that "I'm never really all that hungry. I just eat." Eating should be done to satisfy hunger. But if you eat all day long, you are just eating to eat. You aren't satiating a hunger. And if you eat late at night, you won't wake up hungry. You don't need "breakfast," because you had no fast to break; and 3) it is unhealthy to eat soon before you go to bed. You will get much better sleep if some hours have passed between your last meal and when you fall asleep. Also, if you sleep on a full stomach, your metabolic rate will slow down.

A second important restriction on times when I can and cannot is how much time I allow between meals. There are two guidelines which must be followed:

1. From the first bite to the last, a meal must be consumed in 30 minutes or less; and

2. Three hours must pass with no caloric intake in between meals.

WHAT NOT TO EAT

Besides eating too much of everything, I am fat because I eat easy foods. A store bought cookie is an easy food. In a matter of 5 seconds, I can consume 500 calories eating that cookie. In 10 minutes, I can eat 2000 calories of cookies or ice cream. Yet in order to burn off those 2,000 calories exercising, I'd have to run for more than 3 hours.

The Bicycle Diet is designed to make eating a little bit more work. I need to cut out a lot of easy foods: that is, those foods which are pre-made and which can be consumed fast without even having to cook them or cut them up or combine them with other ingredients. I think part of the reason French people can eat such rich meals and not get fat is because they have to wait a long time for those meals to be ready. Americans eat fast foods and are getting fatter all the time for doing so.

Here are the Bicycle Diet's five forbidden foods:

1. All breakfast cereals;
2. All cookies, candies, pies and cakes;
3. All dairy products except non-fat milk;
4. All buns, breads and bread-like foods; and
5. All soda and other high-calorie canned or bottled drinks.

WHAT TO EAT

Over the next 12 months I will describe in detail good meals to eat which fit the rules of the Bicycle Diet. For now I will give a bare outline: eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Drink some fruit juice, but not too much. Drink non-fat milk. Never consume more than 3 alcoholic drinks in a week's time. Eat lots of lean meat, lean chicken, lean pork and lean fish. Eat modest portions of rice and potatoes, but stay away from fat-laden products like French Fries. Put olive oil and vinegar on your salads; avoid things like Ranch dressing and other heavy dressings. When you drink coffee or tea, don't add half-and-half or sugar. Use sugar substitute products, instead. Drink water in small portions all day long.

Getting Started

I've been thinking about this for awhile. I'm terribly overweight and I have decided that I need to combine a diet regimen and exercise program to get fit. I don't actually know how much I weigh, probably around 285 pounds. I'm 6' 2" and I'd like to get down to 180 pounds.

Some years ago, I was in pretty much this same position. I started running and got in aerobic shape. I then intentionally reduced my caloric intake. The pounds came off. In about 6-8 months I lost about 85 pounds. I ultimately ran two marathons. The problem, though, was once I had lost the weight I started eating more and more. I could get away with it mostly, because I was still burning a lot of calories running. But then, after a few years of pounding the pavement, my knees started to get very sore, and I was intermittently having severe cramping problems in my calves and thighs. Without thinking about it, I one day just gave up running. But I didn't give up eating. And as a result, over about 3 years, my weight returned to what it was before I started running, around 285 pounds.

My intention, therefore, is different this time. I not only want to lose weight and get in shape, but I want to design a program for myself which will help me keep off the weight permanently. To shed pounds, I will reduce my food intake and I'll regularly ride my bicycle. I'm calling the plan, The Bicycle Diet. What I hope will be different from my last experience of losing weight and regaining it is that I have in mind a long-term plan, what to do when I come off the diet.

I am convinced that in order to lose 105 pounds or so, I need to go on a short-term diet, one which will last about a year. I think that is enough time to greatly reduce my size. However, I am also convinced that I will need to strictly follow some dietary rules for the rest of my life, once the one-year period is up. And unlike with running, I know I can bicycle for the rest of my life. Other than some saddle soreness and a little muscle fatigue, bicycling is a low-impact aerobic exercise. My joints won't fail from riding my bike. I don't expect to ever give it up.

In short blog entries like this one, I will explain in detail the rules I must follow for the bicycle and for the diet. I will also keep a log of everything which I do in regards to the bicycle diet for the next year.