Monday, October 09, 2006

OK, Let's Try This Again, This Time With Feeling...

I lost five pounds last month. Hurray for me, I guess, except that I realize that a good bit of that was the appetite suppression effects of the painkillers I was taking for about three weeks. The rest was probably muscle atrophy. Regardless, I was happy to see the pounds gone when I stepped on the scale.

Except that Friday morning I noticed that one of those pounds had crept back. I didn’t panic. I was going away for the weekend, so there wasn’t any use in it. Mrs. Guy and I tend to eat well when we’re vacationing. Still, I got a good bit of exercise, what with all the walking around that we did on Saturday and Sunday. But this morning there was another half of a pound that found its way onto the bathroom scale with me. . .

I got home from work today and thought briefly about going for a walk, but I knew it wouldn’t be fair to the dogs to go for a walk without them (and I certainly can't handle all three at a time right now). I went to the basement and walked the two younger dogs outside to … do what they needed to do … and when I walked back in I spotted my trainer out of the corner of my eye. It still has a bike set up on it from way back in the Spring. Hrmm. I hate the trainer. It’s so mind-numbingly boring. I went ahead and fed the dogs and walked back upstairs.

Mrs. Guy and I got a new TV a week ago. She got a nice bonus from work, so we decided to do something fun with it. Well, she decided we’d do something fun with it, but I jumped right in to help. We ended up getting a new 42” plasma screen TV and a new DVD player (progressive-scan) to go with it. It’s very nice, and She-mom enjoyed watching it while she was down this weekend dog-sitting (she’s watched it more than I have yet). Please don’t think that I’m bragging, though. I only tell you that in order to tell you this next part.

The TV that had been in our main room went upstairs to the bedroom. The TV that had been in the bedroom went to the basement, along with the old DVD player from the main room (there was already a little one in the bedroom). I took it down there so I could watch TV or DVDs while I’m down working on projects in my shop.

But as I sat at my desk upstairs, a nagging argument started to creep its way into the back of my brain. “You’re getting fat again. You can’t run yet. You can’t ride yet. You certainly can’t lift weights. But there IS the trainer.”

“NOOOO!”, the other part of my brain screamed in response, “Not the trainer!!!”

“Oh, yes, Precious. You could do it. All you need is a distraction. And there is the TV…”

“But it’s not hooked up to cable yet…and there’s nothing on worth watching on Mondays!”

“There’s the DVD player…”

“But I don’t have time to get into a movie!”

“No, but you do have that concert DVD…”

Eureka!!! Pure brilliance! Mrs. Guy bought me Rush’s 30th Anniversary concert DVD for Christmas. I could watch for as long as I could stand to ride, and the tempo would help me keep my cadence high. So I changed into cycling shorts and a CoolMax T-shirt, grabbed the DVD set, and headed downstairs. I started the DVD and pumped up the bike’s tires while the introduction was playing. I hopped on right as the music was starting and rode for 45 minutes until my butt started to loudly protest my lack of recent saddle time. That’s not a bad length of time for a first time back, and I still have over half of the concert footage remaining.

Perhaps I’ll try again on Wednesday, just to make sure this new acceptability wasn’t a one-time fluke.

4 comments:

Caffeinated Librarian said...

“Oh, yes, Precious. You could do it. All you need is a distraction. And there is the TV…”

*sigh* Dude...you are SUCH a LOTR geek.

And you gained ONE sticking pound and decided you were "getting fat." Please. All you'd have to do is drink one more glass of water and you'd lose THAT 'cause you're a dude and men don't have to do crap to lose weight.

Talk to me in your next life when you become a woman. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.)

Big Guy on a Bicycle said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Big Guy on a Bicycle said...

It isn't "getting fat" that concerns me, but rather "staying fat".

Caffeinated Librarian said...

*sigh* Am I going to have to pull out the "girl friend routine?" (i.e. the things we women expect our female friends to tell us when we're trying on clothes)

"Dude, you are SOOO not fat."

"No, those bike pants don't make your butt look big."

"You know we like you just the way you are..."

*insert eye roll here*