Today marks the fourth anniversary of Biking to Live. It’s hard for me to believe that this blog actually made it this far before I pulled the plug. Lots of frustration and writer’s block have made me wonder about the merits of keeping this thing going. Every year the domain registration comes due at the beginning of April and I wonder if I should just let it expire. Every year I end up renewing it. Just like this year.

It’s that time where I reflect back in my cycling and weight loss progress for the previous month. The month of February was really tough so I was hoping for great progress come March and that’s what I saw. I didn’t ride as much as I wanted to but I did ride further than the previous month. By far, the most progress was in my weight. Read on to see how much.

This is kind of a two part question and answer because it should be taken in the context of both water for exercise and water for weight loss. Water can help with both and if you’re not drinking enough it’s easy to get discouraged or not perform at your best.

I have to admit that I’ve never been good at drinking enough water. I would drink it while exercising but the bulk of my daily fluid intake was as either soft drinks (regular for years followed by years of the so-called ‘diet’ drinks) and coffee. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that I was chronically dehydrated from the age of 18 to 40.

Lose weight, get fit, eat right, ride better – it’s what most of us want. It’s what I want. At the surface, each of these things appears simple. And they are at only two words each. But when you start to peel back the layers none of them are and it’ll feel like your hands are tied. If they were easy to accomplish we wouldn’t see the problems we face today with obesity, increased dependency on medications, or rising health care costs due to problems like heart disease and diabetes. If it was easy to lose weight, get fit, eat right, or ride better – everyone would do it.

Another month has come and gone so it’s time for my monthly report on my cycling and weight loss. I wasn’t too thrilled about writing this post because I’m not happy with my February results. At all. In short I feel like I totally failed last month. Especially on the weight loss front.

Last month my goals were simple – lose 3 pounds, ride 390 miles, and start core training. I failed at all three. The only thing I did accomplish was not having a soft drink bringing my total to 60 days without one.