Day 69 – Over The Hump

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

~Winston Churchill

189.4 lbs.

Today I walked around the Broadway area (the artsy, “small town”ish section of my city – like Whyte Ave in Edmonton, Davie Street in Vancouver, and so forth) with a friend of mine visiting from out of town. I had just gone with him to a local bike shop where he’d purchased a bike with a few extra do-dads separately, had them swap the tires, etc. and we were killing time.

He’s put on a few lbs. since moving to another city where he hardly knows anyone, and talked about sitting at home and eating for entertainment. Sensibly he rationalized that if he bikes to and from work, he’ll break the cycly of going from laying in bed to sitting in a car to sitting at a computer at the office to sitting at lunch to… you get the idea. He wants to quit being a sit-head.

I intellectually knew that bikes had grown far more complicated than since the last time I bought one – mine was a BMX Kuwahara – the bee’s knees, back in the 80′s. One gear, solid frame, no shocks, etc.Nowadays they are offering disc brake, belt drive, internal gear cylinders, etc. My friend picked out an inexpensive bike with none of those modern comforts, then upgraded to smoother tires, added a rear rack with saddle bags, and a water bottle mount.

While we strolled on Broadway we stepped into a local landmark that’s both butcher shop and cheese / ethnic foods boutique. It’s  the sort of place where they still wrap your meat purchases in brown paper and teenage girls in aprons behind the counter can wax poetic about veggie samosas. He picked out some gourmet hamburger patties for a fire pit cookout he was going to that night, bought a few of the samosas (veggie and otherwise), and we headed back to the bike shop to pick up his purchase.

I installed the saddle bags while the girl who had helped him pick out what he wanted rang up his invoice  ($100 over his announced budget, but that’s with all the extras) and back we went to my place to relax.

He all but insisted I have a couple of the samosas.

Now, I like samosas. They’re tasty, portable, and (I’d been lead to believe when I was a kid) healthy. But they’re deep fried. How did a deep fried food get this “healthy” halo? They’re high in calories – not individually, but who eats only one? – and did I mention deep fried? Since I’d not eaten yet today I picked the smallest of the lot and had one. Then I had a second. Then I stopped myself.

Though he has put on body fat since moving away, my friend recognized the problem and bought himself a shiny new bike to do something about it. He’s also resolved to stop eating seconds, or even thirds, of the dinners he cooks for himself and instead put leftovers in tupperware to toss in his new saddlebags the next day and take to work for a no-fuss lunch. And after a visit he pedalled off to get ready for the evening’s fun at the fire pit.

He ‘gets it’. Recognising he’s made some poor choices, he’s changing them but without sacrifice . He enjoyed his samosas, but stopped at three. He’s going to enjoy burgers tonight, but in appropriate quantities and biking to and from. Increased activity, decreased food intake, and still enjoying foods like samosas, but as an occasional treat not all the time.

Change doesn’t have to mean deprivation or major inconvenience.

I’m now one month away from the end of the starvation phase of this awareness project. I’ve lost more than 50 lbs so far, in the least healthy way possible, and will have to work hard to spool my BMR back up. Once I’m eating enough calories again that the dizzy spells go away and I’m able to get out of the house more, I think I’ll follow his lead and get a bike. I can drive to the gym in winter (it gets to -40 degrees here, folks) but in sunshine it makes more sense to get some extra cardio while enjoying the fresh air.

Thanks to @CarlaYoung for today’s quote.