Bicycle recommendation for very overweight people (over 300 pounds)

A "29er" on the left with a regular mountain bike on the right w/ 26" wheels

Winter is lingering badly where I live. It might be the worst spring ever! Naturally, with skiing done for the year, I'm tending to my unhealthy obsession with bikes by upgrading and maintaining my two bicycles.

Two years ago, I started bicycling at about 350 pounds. I spent a few months walking for about 20-30 minutes first. I lost thirty or forty pounds, gained some muscle and was ready to try my long-loved activity of cycling.

Most obese people who take up cycling to improve their health have little interest of going off-road (like dirt trails with lots of hills and sharp turns.) However, it only took me one year of fitness to get interested in that particular kind of bicycling as an addition to my repertoire of fitness activities, so never say never!

I've always found cycling to be great for weight-loss and health improvement. It's easy on your joints and it's fun, so you keep going back for more. But what if you weigh so much you're afraid a bike won't hold you?

I think most mountain bikes--which are designed to take a beating bouncing off tree limbs, rocks and dips in trails with a normal-weighted rider--will hold someone well over 300 pounds (if not 400 pounds or more) if you're riding on a smooth, flat paved road or bike path (get a cushy seat too!)

There are heavy duty bikes for people as heavy as five hundred pounds but they're very expensive, about $2000.00. When I started out, I thought I needed one of these. I was wrong.

But I didn't like mountain bikes much. Their wheels have a smaller diameter than bikes made for the road and as such, they're not very efficient. You have to put more work into them to ride on pavement than you should. Road bikes typically have wheels that are 700 mm, or around 29 inches, but the rims are thin, often very thin, the higher the level you go.

My solution, if you have lots of money, say $5-600.00, is to buy a relatively new style of bike called a "29er." The name comes from the size of wheel. It's 3 inches larger in diameter than a regular 26 inch mountain bike but still has wide rims that can take a beating. I think I even saw a 29er at Wal-Mart but I'm not sure a Wal-Mart bike would hold up to someone weighing over 350 pounds. The wheels are more flimsy.

Local bike shops always have much better quality bikes. You get what you pay for. Anyone of any weight should consider wheels that have "double-wall" rims. They're sturdier, and any decent bike has them. But you won't find them at your local big box store.

Mountain bike tire for riding on pavement

Secondly, you need to put "slick" or "pavement" tires on your 29er. These hold more pressure (they're harder and therefore more efficient) and they don't have unnecessary knobbies on them that are used for traction in dirt. They roll smoother, more easily and they make less noise. The end result is a faster, more enjoyable ride that will keep you coming back for more. And that's really important for obese people.

If you can't find a 29er, or already have a mountain bike lined up, put slick road tires on it. It'll cost you $40 to do that, but it'll be worth it for your health. If you can't afford a bike-shop quality bike, you can buy used or buy a cheap bike and have your local bike shop put on decent quality (sturdy) wheels for about $100.

How This Fat Guy's House Has Changed in Two Years

It drives my wife crazy. They're everywhere in our house. You can't swing a cat with out hitting one. My house is cluttered with items used in the support of an active lifestyle.

The winter of two years ago was different. The house was much less cluttered by comparison. There were a pair of gloves, a toque and a standard winter jacket. That's all I needed. My big endeavors were to go to the grocery store. Maybe do a little fast food eating in the minivan. The rest of the time was spent on the couch or in bed, sore from a high-fat diet and jellified muscles carrying a ridiculous amount of weight.

Walk in my front door with me now, will you? I'll give you the tour.

The front porch is heavy with indications that I'm no longer sedentary. You'll notice two sets of cross country skis. I only started a week ago and I'm already on my second set. Picked up some waxless skis yesterday that are easier to use. Cost me $20.

Your eyes will no doubt dart towards the snow sleds sitting by the front closet. I have three, one for each particular sledding condition. My latest is soft to keep my spine from compressing and has a fin to guide it true.

On the floor you'll see winter boots for the first time in decades. I need these for tobogganing and winter hikes. A cheap pair of runners is dedicated to icy conditions. They have metal cleats strapped to the bottoms. Can't let ice keep me indoors.

Inside the closet you'll find drawers with not one, but three, sports balaclavas. Each for a different temperature range. Beyond that, there's an assortment of toques, beanies and skull caps for cycling or winter exercise. On the floor, runners for jogging, complete with orthopedic inserts that finally provide relief to my calves during vigorous exercise. And be careful of the freshly sharpened ice skates. They're waiting for December.

You'll have to forgive me for the bike wheel by the front door, I don't know where else to put it right now.

The open stairs as you enter the house are littered with Jameswear. Three sizes of fleece jackets, made for a man who sweats, all of which can be layered if necessary. There's T-Max Heat socks ready to go for cold days, long underwear (which I haven't used since I was a kid), ski pants for very cold weather, and layers of sweat pants for cooler weather. A heart rate monitor and watch sit at the ready, along with my iPod and headphones. Athletic shorts and shirts for the gym are also all over the place. All these clothes are at the ready. Every day some of them get used in the pursuit of fitness.

Which leads me to something else we have a lot more of: Laundry detergent. I'm washing a lot more clothes. Usually there's a fresh pile of clothes soaked with sweat that gets cleaned almost daily. Two winters ago, I rarely worked up enough heat to require clothes to be washed on a regular basis. Now, the washing machine is running constantly.

Entering the kitchen, there's a serving cart that couldn't be more full of bike helmets, sweat bands, cycling gloves, hydration back packs, water bottles and a few cycling tools and bike spare parts.

In the laundry room, more skis for the family, and a bike rack for the car.

The shed had bikes in it two years ago. Now it has twice as many. I picked up bikes on UsedRegina and at garage sales for me or the kids.

Our home and our life is hardly recognizable from two years ago. Thank god!

A Thousand Trees and One Great Big Rock

I'm a slow learner when it comes to self-discovery.

I'm still learning things about myself based on CBT sessions dealing with chronic anxiety that took place and ended several years ago. This is also happening with me as I learn about problem eating patterns and causes that I began discover in Craving Change, a group workshop series of classes that ended many months ago. In that class I began to be aware of things ingrained in me that made me eat the way I do.

The more discoveries I make about myself on this front (not solutions, just discoveries), the more daunting a problem it seems. There appears to be no end to the reasons why I eat in ways that compromise my health. Some problems originated in childhood, more than likely. Others seem to be because of general personality traits I have like impulsiveness and risk-taking tendencies. There's many emotional reasons, it seems, and many habits built up over a lifetime. The reasons, although not clearly or fully understood by me yet, are nonetheless intimidatingly numerous.

Reading Dr. Sharma's blog on obesity and scanning the various studies that appear in newspapers and on the Internet, one might sometimes be led to believe that the fight against obesity is hopeless. I don't have the solution for myself or for others. There is no secret diet, and the body works against itself to gain back weight.

My own struggle is navigating a forest of countless and varied personal issues that have caused me to be severely overweight. I can't even see the other side of the forest, but I resolve to cut down one 'tree' at a time until I can make it through to the other side, one day, one far off day in this lifetime.

But there is one thing I am certain of. There is one thing I can control. There is one thing that I can be a master of and that is foolproof. It's exercise. Getting fit is a no-fail endeavour. You do the work, you cannot fail. You do the learning, you will have the knowledge--the secret--to overcoming the problem of obesity. It works for me; it works for everyone and there are no questions, no uncertainty about this.

I'm unsure about a lot of things in my struggle to tame my disease but exercise and fitness is the rock that I can always rely on. Exercise is well understood by science and even by me. I have total confidence in exercise and my relationship with it. It's a relationship that comes naturally to anyone who gives it a chance.

Obesity is a long way off from being fully-understood or cured. But that's okay. I have exercise. Exercise is the road I walk on, the path I return to while I walk through the forest of eating issues and chop down one at a time. One day it will lead me to daylight.

It's a Miracle! I'm Cured!

Here me out, exercise haters.

Something amazing happened today. I realized that I once had a hip problem. It wasn't huge but it seemed permanent, a product of my ageing body. It got worse over the last few years and was a real problem when I started walking in the early spring.

I hadn't thought about it in a long time but that's because it hasn't been present for...I don't know how long. I honestly don't! I don't think I've had so much as a hint of a hip problem since the spring. It's cured, exercise cured it! And, remarkably to me, I've long forgotten about it.

Sure my overall weight has gone down some but it's the strength I've gained from moving my body that has healed me. There's so much I take for granted these days and I only occasionally remember that just a few shorts months ago, I was very different physically.

I run of the steps in my home instead of avoided them.

I come home from shopping and I'm ready for more, instead of collapsing in pain and exhaustion on my bed.

I look at cold winter days in the eye and I head out there to do things. I look forward to shovelling. And just today I crashed on the toboggan hill for the first time.

I have to work to the my heart rate up where as last year, walking onto my treadmill was a task and I immediately began to sweat profusely. Three small fans weren't enough to keep me cool. Not any more.

Huge, huge progress without even thinking about weight loss.

After Some Setbacks, I Now Feel Really Good

November was a tough month for me in that my level of hope was challenged by injuries to my knee and back. After an early November bike ride, my first that late in the year, the snow came and my back injury got worse. In September I had a ridiculous accent with cycling shoes indoors and fell on my ass. My back hurt but seemed to be on the mend, although ever so slowly.

I had a good jog in October that was 20 minutes, a very significant landmark for me. It was, in my mind, a real jog because that's what I used to do in the old days of being fit. But it was too much too soon. My previous record this time out was fifteen minutes and that was too large of a jump all at once. I did it because I felt so good up until the end of the run but I didn't stop when I got signals from my knee that it had had enough. It pushed it one minute further to meet my goal.

My knee has been troublesome ever since. Going up stairs and jogging seemed iffy on occasion. But I'm happy to say it's all better now. If anything, going up and down a large toboggan hill seemed to help. It certainly strengthened my legs in ways they weren't before. But I'm taking it easy with jogging just in case, doing intervals instead of one long jog. Even at home on my treadmill (my fitness safety net) I do a minute or two of jogging intervals to spice up an otherwise boring routine.

All runners will tell you it feels really good to run. Well, I'd imagine it feels even better for people like me who, less than a year ago, were confined to laying in bed most of the day. Doing it for even just a couple of minutes here and there, with ever-increasing speeds as my fitness improves, feels oh so good.

I should have seen a chiropractor from the beginning. I hadn't seen one before and I know more now about back problems and how chiropractors can help get things better in a week or two.

So I feel pretty darn good! The only problem is the snow is melting. I actually want it to come back. I was just getting the hang of sledding and I'd usually much rather go tobogganing than go for a walk.

I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew Tonight

No, this post isn't about food.

I try to exercise every day. I even look forward to it throughout the day. On days I don't exercise (maybe two or three days per  month) I feel bad and guilty. Disturbingly, I also feel like I'm gaining weight on those days.

Life long success for people like me depends on being able to deal with imperfection when it comes to eating and exercise. I need to relax about the days I'm too sick or busy to exercise or when I make poor decisions with my eating (I had two birthday parties yesterday so there was lots of cake and fatty food available to me and no time to exercise.)

The last two nights prior to my day off, I went for bike rides with my daughter riding the bike trailer. Two consecutive days of cycling made my arms very sore. It's funny that my arms are my problem. My exercise counsellor had me lifting free weights in order to help me with cycling but it seems to be not just strength but joints in my arms that are the issue.

I have to support a lot of weight while leaning forward on my bike. An upright position would be more preferable but I'd have to make changes to my bike's handle bars in order to accomplish that. And no "real cyclist" would go for that because sitting upright isn't really efficient, especially aerodynamically. But I put myself in this position by gaining all that weight, I suppose I could spend a year or two sitting upright on my bike.

Tonight, after a day off, I returned to cycling with my family in the dark after dinner. I put in 30 vigorous minutes of cycling--or I should say Team Double D did. That's my new cycling team consisting of my three year old daughter and me (Daddy and Daughter) on essentially the same bike. (She tells relatives on the phone that she has a new bike and it only has one wheel, causing the person on the other end to be quite confused.)

After my bike ride tonight, I felt really warmed up and raring to go. I put on my running shoes and went for a short walk and jog. For some reason, I got a stitch in my side even though my heart rate was below 80%. I had to stop a couple minutes short of my 6 minute goal. I expected my legs to be quite fresh for jogging after three days on a bike and one day off but it didn't work out that way.

My legs were fatigued from cycling just prior to my jog and even though you use some different muscles in different ways in cycling than jogging, it still affected my ability to jog. I now have even greater respect for people who can compete in triathlons.

But don't dismay, dear reader. If I wanted to cycle then jog as part of my routine, all I'd have to do is train for it (practice) and I'm sure my body would quickly respond. Because if you've got one thing out of this blog it should be that the human body is an amazing thing.

I'm Surprised I'm Fat

Although I've shed fifty pounds of fat mass, it really doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. Very few people even notice my reduced size unless I bring it up, then they look me over and concede it's possible.

That fact is, I'm a very large person and fifty pounds doesn't amount to much more appearance-wise than the equivalent of me sucking in my stomach. With someone my size, fifty pounds translates into only a shirt size or two in reduction. With someone smaller it might be a pant size per ten pounds.

So I'm still a gigantic "morbidly" obese man by all accounts, but the remarkable thing is I've begun to forget this fact. I find myself surprised by my appearance when I look in the mirror. I assume I'm not morbidly obese any longer because I've stopped feeling morbidly obese. Exercise has made me feel so "normal," strong and capable that it almost doesn't matter that I'm huge.

One approach that has crossed my mind is to solely focus on exercise and not worry about diet so much. Exercise has decreased my appetite for whatever reason and I feel obliged to eat more reasonably when I'm exercising regularly.

I saw my doctor today and he didn't notice anything different about me, although he was very happy when I filled him in on my progress. The last time I saw him five months ago, I was a very different person. Then, it would have been an agonizing, slow and tedious journey from my bed to his exam room.

What he didn't see today was how I floated effortlessly into his clinic, strong, energetic, and with a very capable cardiovascular system that wasn't sucking air before I got ten feet from the car.

If I Had Cancer Would I Fight It?

I'd like to think that if I had cancer, I'd fight it. Especially now that I have kids. But here's the thing. I have a chronic, ultimately fatal disease that I didn't fight for a decade: obesity. What made me not want to fight for all those years? And will I once again, one day, throw in the towel?

One reason for not fighting it is because obesity doesn't spread uncontrollably like cancer can. If I put off fighting obesity until next month, there's a good chance I'll be fine. But you can use that excuse day after day, week after week until you fall off the face of the Earth at a premature age. Some people may think I'm a bit dramatic with my talk of death but obesity does kill you eventually.

With some people it can be at a very early age. A nurse friend of mine works in a cardiac unit and sees plenty of obese people at death's door. One woman was just 35 when she died of her obesity. When I was in my late twenties I thought that was going to be my fate so I did something about it. But only a few years after that, I once again stopped fighting.

Recent studies paint a rather grim picture for those suffering from obesity. Scientists are understanding that people who lose weight have many processes in their bodies that conspire to gain the weight back. Formerly overweight bodies become efficient at burning calories, possibly 20 percent fewer than another person of the same gender, weight and height. Their bodies are able to conserve calories while exerting the same amount of effort and people's bodies tell them to eat more than they need.

Canadian obesity expert Dr. Arya M. Sharma believes that few people beat obesity long term because the deck is stacked against them. If someone has their stomach reduced with surgery, they tend to gain all their weight back if the surgery is reversed. In order to maintain your weight loss you have to do what you did to lose the weight--forever. That's very difficult to do. You have to be obsessive about exercising and calorie counting permanently.

So science tells us that obesity is a chronic, ultimately fatal disease with no cure, just treatments. The treatment is diet and exercise but the treatment has to continue or the patient will deteriorate. But what if I had a different chronic disease? There are many chronic illnesses that have less effective treatments than obesity does, or no treatments at all. Perhaps I should consider myself lucky because counting calories and exercising isn't all that bad compared to what some people have to deal with who have other chronic diseases.

Even if we are thin, exercise is something we all should be doing our whole lives. I recently saw a news story on a 90+ year-old body builder. He was ripped! Exercising as we age wards off the effects of old age and has countless benefits no matter what our weight is. I shouldn't complain about exercise as a treatment for my illness because I should be doing it anyway.

So to successfully battle this disease I will have to become an exercise fanatic, a crazy person obsessed with exercise and watching every thing I put into my mouth. It's going to be very hard and I'm going to need ongoing support. But it could be worse. Exercising and watching what I eat isn't the most difficult treatment for a chronic disease. And unlike treatments for some other chronic diseases, this treatment is 100% effective if kept up.

I'll just count myself lucky that I have this chronic disease and not something with more difficult or less effective treatments. And I'll continue to believe in myself and hope for the best. What other choice do I have?

Why You Shouldn't Be Scared of Jogging

There's two main things I got out of watching obesity reality shows: An insight into the mental dysfunction it takes to become severely obese, and that the obese body is every bit capable of exercise as any healthy body. It may take longer, but if you make your body move, it adapts in a remarkable fashion for the next time it might have to do the same thing.

If all you can do is walk to the nearest lamp post, do it. Do it a few times then start walking a few steps further each day. You'll find your body is adapting and probably building the muscle necessary to complete the task.

With me, I could walk about twenty minutes when I started getting fit this time. I thought that was all I could do until I saw people twice my weight doing more, including jogging. So I almost doubled my walking time that I do every day and I was perfectly fine.

In my late twenties, when I first got fit and lost a great deal of weight, I cycled a lot and, after I lost about 40 pounds, started jogging. Much to my surprise I liked it. Hell, I loved it. It was so empowering to think that the lifelong fat guy could jog. But mostly I liked the endorphins that my body released when I exercised at a little higher intensity. I became an endorphins junkie. I can tell you that "runner's high" is very real. Maybe not everyone gets it easily, but I did.

It was big morale boost for me to be able to ride my bicycle a few times this month, but jogging--or as the kids these days call it: "running"--seems like the last frontier of exercise to conquer. I jogged for about ten seconds during my walk one night to see what would happen. I didn't die.

Earlier this month I would occasionally (not every night) start jogging for about thirty seconds after I got well into my walk. If I went any further I'd get severely out of breath and that doesn't seem safe to me. But, as any expert will tell you, all you have to do is jog for a little while (usually 90 seconds at first) and then walk for a couple of minutes to rest up, then repeat. That's called 'walking to run.' It's how most people start a jogging program if they're not already fit.

Ninety seconds is too much for me right now. I'm too out of shape and too heavy. My rule of thumb is to jog until I can't any more because I'm out of breath or my legs are too fatigued. At first it was 30 seconds, but now it's a minute, and today I did five minutes of a very slow trot on the treadmill at my clinic. Treadmills are a little easier than running in the real world because the side walk is moving for you. The remedy for that is to raise the incline of the treadmill up slightly to just 1%. That compensates for the moving walking surface.

It feels good to jog and it feels good to sweat. It's a self esteem boost and anything that helps me get out and exercise is important. I can see myself jogging for ten minutes later this year as part of my walks, but just not on consecutive days.

I hurt my knee when jogging when I got in shape fifteen years ago. Injury is possible but it's rare and you have to use common sense. If you're middle aged like me and or if you're quite heavy, taking a day off between jogs is important to help your body recover and get strong again. The compulsivity and risk taking behaviour that got me obese in the first place caused me to jog too much, too often and when my knee began to hurt, I didn't stop because I was looking for my endorphins fix.

It took a few months to heal and I really hated stopping jogging for that long. I've learned my lesson though. My knees are doing just fine these days. Four months ago they'd hurt just by walking up the stairs in my house. But my body has since greatly adapted to exercise.

Here's to good health!

More on Weight Loss Television Shows

Before and after pictures of two participants of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (ABC)

I continue to be inspired by watching other very obese people access their inner athlete and transform themselves into healthy, smaller people. I'm still amazed at how capable the obese body is at becoming athletic. I still challenge my own perceptions of what I am currently capable of when I watch these shows. And I continue to be counselled by seeing the common emotional dysfunction I share with each of these people. Last night I jogged a bit, only because I saw other people heavier than me doing it. And I can do it. It's just going to happen slowly, but I never would have tried if I weren't inspired by watching others on TV.

The current obesity weight loss show that is on the air is Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. Super-obese subjects spend a year transforming themselves with the help of trainer Chris Powell. He claims to live with the subjects for the first three months, changing their eating habits and teaching them how to work out (for five hours per day!). However, I don't know how that's possible from a TV production standpoint. (He'd have to spend a year with just four subjects and there are eight in this current season.)

The show only lightly touches on how they do the transformations. All of fifteen seconds of an episode is devoted to a nutritionist cooking up a healthy alternative to the subject's favourite unhealthy meal. Through one of the subject's public Facebook page, I came across an interview with the nutritionist who works with the obese people on the series.

Paullette Lambert (right) teaches an EMWLE client how to make a healthy meal

What struck me were her comments about many of the subjects not being able to cook their own food. As a result they weren't getting healthy vegetables in their meals. That's something I identify with and see as a problem I have.

She also said not to drink your calories, something I've long been aware of and have stopped doing years ago in spite of my ever-increasing weight. But some people drink the equivalent of a five pound bag of sugar in a week through pop or fruit drinks.

Fast food is also a common problem: too high a calorie count in relatively small volumes of food, and no vegetables or fruit included. Fast food is a huge issue for me. I'm making healthier choices when I go there now, and I'm including a side salad with my meals, but I'm still hooked on going to the damned places.

The subjects of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition were allowed the calories that a normal adult needs (approx 1600 for woman and 2000 or so for men.) But the subjects exercised for five hours per day and their caloric needs were upwards of 6000 because of their large size. A 3500 calorie deficit is a pound of fat loss. Some were losing a pound or more per day in the first few months. The nutritionist for the show recommends a normal caloric intake and doing an hour of exercise per day, but less is also very beneficial and would achieve weigh loss.

I have a hard time doing much more than a half hour of exercise per day before my joints get sore, but it's working for me. Four months ago I was, for all intents and purposes, disabled. Today I'm a new man, doing things I never thought I would do again.

The night before last I pulled my three-year-old daughter in a bike trailer. For the last six years I watched my wife take the kids in that thing and never even imagined I would one day be capable of doing it. Even when I started to improve my physical capabilities this spring, I didn't foresee something like this happening this summer.

Discovering I am capable of jogging, and riding a bike--something I've loved all my life--has been a huge emotional boost for me. It's broken down the perception I had of myself and what is possible for me in my future.

What is Nike Plus and why is it useful for someone like me?

A Nike+ sensor in a Nike+ shoe

I like to listen to music while I exercise. (On a treadmill, I go about 20% faster with music in my ears!) When I kicked obesity the first time, in 1996, there were few options for carrying music with you while you walked or jogged. The tape Walkman was history and the Sony Discman that played CDs was vulnerable to skipping when it was shaken. Then came MP3 players and eventually, the ubiquitous iPod.

I bought an iPod Touch a couple of years ago with the intention of using it when I exercised. I never really exercised, however, until recently. It comes with an app called Nike Plus or "Nike+." It requires the purchase of a small sensor that is to be placed in any "Nike+" runner (in a special cutout under the insole.) However, you can purchase third party holders for the sensor and attach it to the shoe laces on any brand of running shoe. It sends a signal automatically to your iPod Touch. Other iPods need a extra part that attaches at the bottom of the iPod to receive the signal.

On the surface, this product seemed geared towards hardcore runners, but I've found it very useful for my weight loss walking routine.

Two different screen captures from the Nike Plus iPod app

The Nike Plus app plays your music (an exercise playlist, for example) and gives you voice prompts automatically or manually as you exercise. You can program it for a 3 KM walk, for example, and it will tell you when you're half way and count down your final stretch. It also gives you messages from celebrity athletes congratulating/motivating you when you achieve goals or surpass your previous fastest pace or longest 'run.'

There are several functions of the Nike Plus system that I find useful. One is pace. I can see how my body is feeling by what pace of walking I'm at. If I'm tired or my body hasn't recovered from previous exercise, I can see my pace fall below normal. I can use pace to motivate me to go a bit harder and I can compare my pace over time to see how it changes.

3rd party Nike+ sensor holder can be used on any shoe

Secondly, it sends your data to NikeRunning.com where you get a free account. This acts as an exercise diary so you can keep track of your exercise (distance, pace, length of time, time of day) over weeks or months. All you have to do is click "send to Nike" on your iPod and it's taken care of for you.

Thirdly, your "runs" can be viewed publicly on NikeRunning.com or even posted automatically to Facebook and or Twitter. Publicly disclosing your exercise makes you accountable to 'running friends' or to friends and family in general. Friends can congratulate you and encourage you to continue.

Another feature I like is the mapping function on their web site. You can draw a route in your neighbourhood on Google Maps and see how far it is. I drew my current route and found it was about 2.5 KM. But I want to try other routes for variety so I draw different variations and find routes of the same length around my home.

A "run" displayed on the NikeRunning.com web site

All told, it's another tool that you might find useful for exercise motivation. A link to my NikePlus page is on the right column of this blog.

Even though you can calibrate it for walking, Nike Plus still calls all exercise sessions "runs."

In Canada, the sensors cost $25 at running stores and holders cost between $5 and $10. The sensors last about a year before the battery dies and the unit has to be replaced. If you don't have an iPod Touch or iPhone, make sure you buy the "kit" for your iPod that has a receiver on it.

A setback, a pause, a chance to come down to earth, a reminder

Today I don't have the energy to get out of bed for very long. I'm sick with something flu-like. The two previous days were filled with fever, aches and exhaustion. Today I'm on the mend but I lack energy, have some aches and pains, a feeling of not being well, and the inability to be active in any significant way. I hate being sick, but I'm feeling no different today really than I did on a typical day four months ago due to my obesity.

Before I got sick I was on Cloud 9, my feet never touching the ground it seemed, having just accomplished two significant bike rides and increasing the length of my walks while beginning to implement very short intervals of jogging (only 30 seconds before my cardiovascular got revving too high.) I couldn't wait for my next exercise session and was looking forward to my first alone workouts at my clinic's gym facility.

It's given me a chance to reflect but it's hard to stop even for a day when you're thriving on your accomplishments.

Introduction: My Tipping Point

Six months ago, in December 2010 when I was 44 years old, I saw my doctor for a check-up. My blood pressure was up slightly and he told me to go get in shape or go on the pills. He said he could give me six months to make some changes but most people don't so I might as well go on the meds now. I agreed. I couldn't see myself reversing my lifestyle now or ever. I had given up.

But he said there wasn't much he could "give me shit for." My cholesterol was perfect, and so was my blood sugar. A few years ago he suggested that when I came to see him in ten years I'd be testing positive for diabetes. Yet he had little to shock me with to make me change my ways. He couldn't say, "If you don't do this, you'll be dead in two years."

During my forty year physical my doctor actually brought up gastric bypass surgery. I was dead against making any unnatural changes to my body. Ten years earlier I had lost 125 pounds and became quite fit. Armed with this knowledge of how to go from obese to fit (that it was possible and I knew exactly how to do it) I hated the idea of gastric bypass surgery.

Four years later I was asking for it. I had given up. I didn't think myself capable as a middle aged man to be able to make any significant changes. Six months earlier I had tried my treadmill every other day but lost no weight or inches. I stopped exercising and decided I had to get a grip on my eating problem first. It never happened.

I found myself feeling helpless, spiralling into ever-worsening problems with my weight. I laid in bed most of the day because I was too tired or sore to spend much time up and about. I ate supper on a recliner in front of the TV, and because I burned little or no calories from moving, my weight continued to increase even though I thought I was making small improvements to my over-eating. I lost confidence that I could ever change on my own.

The fact was, I reached a point where I couldn't move much and did less and less every day. Doing less caused me to gain more body fat, which in turn caused me to move even less. I felt like I was on a slippery slope. Things were out of my control and I was helpless. This scared me. I foresaw a continuation of weight gain and a ever-increasing sedentary lifestyle. I felt at risk of dying at any moment. At best, there were only years left in my life instead of decades.

I have young children. They're only three and seven. They need their daddy. I lost mine when I was 20 and it was hard even at that age. I knew that me dying in their childhood would cause them pain and maybe even some dysfunction throughout their lives. I started writing notes to my children in case I died, telling them that I loved them and that I was sorry. I made sure there were pictures of me with them. I smiled with my most loving expression in the event that that photograph was all they had to remember me by.

I couldn't participate in all things my family did. I couldn't play with my kids. The best I could muster was reading them stories while I lay in bed. And I couldn't work, even acting jobs were becoming increasingly difficult and humiliating when I tried to perform the most basic tasks.

At my December check-up my doctor told me he was now against gastric bypass/lap band surgery. He had patients get it done and then revert back to their old eating habits. My last hope, most desperate option wasn't even there for me any longer.

My doctor suggested I sign up for a class that my progressive medical clinic offered twice per year. I had heard of the class when I was treated for an anxiety disorder three years ago by a free counsellor available to me through my remarkable clinic but I didn't pursue it. THIS was my new last chance. I said yes.

Two months later I met with my nutritionist in advance of the six week, once per week class beginning. I was to meet with her on a regular basis and she would offer me advice, help me create doable eating goals and be someone for me to be accountable to as I progressed. I see her once per month.

She encouraged me to start exercising as well--anything to get started. I began walking my daughter to her preschool twice per week at the beginning of March. It required four 8-minute walks through the icy streets in  late winter and they exhausted me.

But soon I was walking 20 minutes a night in a loop around my neighbourhood and things started to change rapidly.

Four months into my work, I'm a new person. I feel like I've shed a major disability and am a fully functioning person again, doing things I never thought I would do again in this life. And it's really not that hard. This blog will document my personal journey so that I can inspire and educate others who are in the position I was only 12 weeks ago.

First Bike Ride with Family

My first very short test runs in my neighbourhood were conducted under the cover of darkness I struggled going half way down the block on my wife's ill-fitting mountain bike and conducting several seat tests on my newly-refurbished hybrid bike. Tonight we set forth in front of God and my neighbours, including the weird one down the block with a large analogue clock hanging in her picture window.

I felt conspicuous and awkward, although less than I would have before my adventure with my son yesterday. With my wife towing my three year old daughter in a bike trailer, and my son on his bike, we hit the three corners of Uplands (the city subdivision I live in.)

It was a very enjoyable 45 minute ride as the sun set over the houses in this prairie town. I was a lot more relaxed this time, and halfway through my ride, I realized I felt like I normally do on my bike: completely at ease, in control and not exceedingly huge.

Maybe I wasn't. My son yelled from behind me, "Hey Daddy, you look smaller. Your back looks smaller!"

I arrived home confident and unashamed, looking to dismount gracefully in front of my neighbours. However, my foot got stuck on my saddle during the dismount and I almost pulled a muscle trying to save face.

Oh well, screw them. I don't see any of them biking!

"How do you know if you're working hard enough to have a good workout?"

This was a question David Letterman asked Richard Simmons a number of years ago on his late night TV show.

Simmons' answer: "When your underwear is soaking wet."

He was serious and I think he's right.

A dream came true for me today, although there were moments that seemed like a nightmare

Four summers ago my son started riding a two wheeler bike with training wheels (he skipped tricycles all together.) He must have picked up on my love of bikes because he rode and rode and rode that thing. Once he rode several kilometers to my mother's house as I walked with him to the point of exhaustion.

But he saw my bike hanging in the garage with the helmet attached and frequently asked why I never rode with him. "I can't," I'd say. "Daddy's too unhealthy."

So for four years it was a dream of mine to ride my bike with my son. A dream that I thought wasn't any more attainable than owning my own tropical island. A few weeks ago it became a goal, but not for this year. Then I found myself in a bike shop asking to replace my bent wheel with a stronger one and a larger more cushiony tire. Later, I tried out some plush seats, taking one back to the store and finding a better one. Suddenly, my bike was ready to go, but I wasn't. I felt I was too heavy to ride a bike with thin rims like mine.

I was still 350 pounds at my last weigh in. I had lost fat and became smaller, but my overall mass didn't go down much and that didn't help get me any closer to my goal. I tried riding my wife's mountain bike but it was so wrong for me that I almost gave up on the dream of cycling completely.

One night recently, after the sun had set, I nervously set out on my newly-refurbished bike to see if it were possible. I zoomed along like I was riding on air. So much better for me was my hybrid bike (a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike) that it had almost seemed effortless. Yet I was still tentative and when challenged, my legs seemed really weak and muscle pain came easy. I didn't go far. I also was very tense, fearing my wheel would cave in.

I did one session of training at my clinic's gym yesterday to strengthen my legs for cycling and my arms to support my weight as I leaned forward on a bike. After a night's rest, I decided to give cycling a try with my son. He likes exploring, so first I tried to find a stretch of abandoned highway. I couldn't find one so I decided to go on bike path in a newer part of the city that no one in the family had ever tried. It was to be an adventure.

I tried to prepare my son by telling him I didn't think I could go very far or for very many minutes. He seemed to understand, but he's only seven. I put his bike in the minivan and strapped mine to the roof. We headed to the other end of town and I parked near the pathway on a residential street.

I was very apprehensive and worried that I'd disappoint my boy. But we set out and things went okay at first. People greeted us regularly. My perineum had been bothering me and I was worried it wouldn't hold for very long. I was sweating and tense and after a few minutes I asked to stop at a park bench.

We continued through the beautiful park on this cool summer day with lots of clouds. I spent a lot of time coasting past my son because my heavy weight gave me a lot of momentum going down hills. We explored as I chased after him. He completely forgot I had limitations and after a while, so did I.

The path was confusing because there were constant forks in it. We eventually got to the end where there was an artificial marsh in a park area. This is a more affluent part of the city and there's amazing play structures every few yards it seemed.

As we were headed back, we weren't quite sure where were were going. I over-exerted myself and became a bit aloof in my concentration. I was going too fast approaching a walking bridge and had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting some large rocks. I skidded on sand and crashed. I thought I wrecked my bike but it was fine. I didn't care about me so much because I have free health care, my bike doesn't not, and I have no money to fix it.

I dusted myself off and walked for a while to get my bearings and see if I could recognize where we were. It didn't seem familiar and we thought we were lost. Storm clouds were moving in and I discovered my cell phone was dead.

Where we were lost, minus the storm clouds.

My son, the mapwhiz, found a sign with a map on it and figured out where we were before I did. A moment earlier we were lost and worried. He felt like he saved the day and his mood got even brighter than it had been. We had bonded more in those few minutes of desperation than we had since at any one time since his birth.

After 10.5 kilometers, I've never been so happy to see my stinking 1998 minivan. I pedaled even harder to get to her sooner.

Lessons Learned

Bring more water. I thought a small water bottle from a grocery store would do. It did not. I had to suck on some of my son's water. A proper bike water bottle needs to be purchased.

Find a way to wear a sweatband under my helmet. My eyes had sweat in them constantly and it was irritating.

My GPS might have been handy if I recorded the route so we could retrace it.

I got a mosquito bite on my back and I wish I had a back scratcher in the worst way.

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This has been a Canada Day I won't soon forget.