Return of OSB - Putting Pressure On Myself

Me in 2007

Me in 2007

Me in 2010

Me in 2010

For those who know what OSB is, it's back.  Yes.  I've biked a little over a hundred kilometers since Thursday, and I plan to bike another hundred kilometers before Friday.  If I can keep it up, that will amount to around 600-800 Kms a month.  Now THAT's a good average.  Even if I just do 400Kms a month, that would be a phenomenal amount of road covered.  Since I've started biking, I've covered more than 5000Kms of combined geared and single speed riding.  On the single speed (which I've been riding exclusively for a little over a year), I've covered about 1900Kms.  To put things in perspective, a round trip from Manila to Baguio and back is around 500Kms.  I've planned (and scrapped my plans) to bike up to Baguio for two consecutive years now, but I've made it a point that THIS YEAR will be the year that I do it.  I need to get a geared bike.  Either I build a new one with gears or convert my one and only single speed bike to a geared one.  I know I will miss my single speed too much if I convert her, so if budget allows, I'll build a new geared bike from the ground up.  I'm blabbering.   Anyway, back to biking.

I started biking in 2008, when my brother and my dad gave me a bike for my birthday.  I say, it's the best birthday gift I've ever gotten.  Ever.  EVER.  Nothing has changed my life so drastically.  Before I started to bike, I was extremely overweight, out of shape, and short of breath.  I weighed in at a staggering 260lbs.  And I'm only 5'6", mind you.  I started biking and instantly fell in love with it.  I've tried running, I've tried going to the gym, and other sports.  None was as enjoyable as biking.   I couldn't run long distances because my weight put a shitload of strain on my feet (my joints, thankfully have never given out despite of all the excess baggage).  The gym was fun for a while (I particularly enjoyed sweating it out in the Saunas), but I quickly got bored of the repetitive nature of it all. Then came biking.  Oh yes, the one sport that I have truly come to love.  What I love about biking is that there is little to no strain on your joints and feet.  That was one thing.  Another thing is the unpredictability of biking.  I own a mountain bike and it's a cross-country set up (know as XC).  That means that the setup is more for light trail use and also ideal for the streets of Manila.  I was able to go to so many places that my car could not reach.  I was able to see sights not accessible by other means of transport.  Complete freedom!  What a rush it is to pass expensive automobiles and vans stuck in traffic!  Add to this the feeling that you're contributing to a smaller ecological footprint, and you have yourself a winner!

All that biking (plus some sort of dieting) helped me lose 50lbs in around 2 years.  I was down to 210lbs!  But then the biking stopped for one reason or another, and the dieting as well.  I started gaining...  a lot.  And again, I topped off at 223lbs.  I've started biking again, and I'm now at 220lbs.  My goal is that by April, I'll be down to less than 200.  Slow and steady.  Losing too much too quick will leave me with flaps of loose skin everywhere (ewwww!).  Slow and steady is a lot healthier.

The good thing about writing this all down is that I'm pressuring myself to do things.  Like the Baguio trip I took last week.  I wrote down that I'd go, whether I had company or not, and because I had it written down (and published), I had to do it.  No excuses.  And that's what I'm hoping to accomplish with this entry.  By writing down my goal, I've put myself in a position to not have excuses.  No excuses!

Wish me luck!