Blood Pressure | Biking To Live

Why I redesigned Biking To Live

Posted by Bryan on Jan 4, 2009 in Blog, Featured | 6 comments

I had high hopes for both myself and Biking To Live in 2008. Everything started out OK. I began to build up a good readership here on my blog and enjoyed communicating with them via comments, emails, and phone conversations. After a couple months of riding I even started to see improvement in my health. My clothes were fitting better and my blood pressure and cholesterol were much improved. By the end of the year though, things took a dramatic turn.

Dallas

In the beginning of October I found out that the place I was employed needed to lay off all temporary employees, contractors, and consultants. This was a direct result of the financial market which was hitting the construction industry hard. Being a consultant I was kept around for a little while longer than most but they laid off almost 250 folks in the span of two weeks. The parent company I worked for employed about 17 folks in the Jacksonville area and by the time the layoffs were done we were down to six. I was fortunate to be one of those six. My company immediately set out to find me a new position and lined me up with an interview for a job in Dallas. While waiting for the interviews my dad suffered a major heart attack and passed away at the beginning of November. He knew I was waiting to interview in Dallas and was excited about having me close to home because he and my mother only lived two hours from Dallas. As it turns out I did get the job in Dallas and I’m at least close to my mom now. Being in Dallas isn’t without it’s downside though. I’ve had to leave my family (my lovely wife and three beautiful daughters (and my 42″ LCD)) in Jacksonville until the real estate market recovers and we can sell our home there. Living apart isn’t easy but we did it sporadically for over 16 years while I was in the military. We’ll overcome it.

As you can see, the last three months have not been good. With so much going on I didn’t get any riding in. I wanted to ride but circumstances just didn’t allow for it. Because of that, my health has taken a downturn. I’ve gained weight back and I can tell I’ve lost some of the healthy gains I had made. My weight is one of the things that bothers me the most. I’ve got to get it under control. I also neglected Biking To Live and it’s suffered.

Now 2009 is here. I’m moved into the place I’m renting here in northern Dallas and am ready to pick up where I left off in 2008.

Biking To Live – Cycling To A Healthy Lifestyle

The first order of business was to redesign Biking To Live. The last design was OK but it didn’t lend itself well to the plans I had for my blog. Biking To Live, in its old form, was too single-minded and self-centered, and didn’t help achieve the goal I wanted which was living a sustainable healthy lifestyle. I was too “bicycle ride” oriented and often wandered around by focusing on bicycle news and opinions. Make no mistake about it, Biking To Live will continue to be about bicycling but instead will broaden it’s scope to include subjects that directly compliment bicycling and it’s role in a healthy lifestyle. Topics like food, exercise, recipes, motivation, and health. It’s my hope to not only inspire my fellow riders but also be a source of information for people looking for a solution to their health problems. This new theme is going to help me achieve those goals. Vastly different than the old design, the new Biking To Live takes the focus away from the typical blog setup and enables users to quickly focus on topics they want which are more prominently displayed on the home page. You can quickly find topics on food, medical, news, or reviews. If you want to see it in the old blog style all you need to do is click on the blog link in the grey navigation bar. You’ll also notice a featured video section on the right. I’ll post bicycle and healthy lifestyle videos there for everyone to see. It’s my plan for you to be able to see me on there someday.

That, in a nutshell, is why I redesigned Biking To Live. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts, likes, dislikes, and opinions.

What can you do? There are a few things you can do for me:

1. If you haven’t subscribed to my feed please do so. Links to it are located at the top right of the site.
2. If you aren’t following me on twitter please do so. A link to my Twitter account is located up by the feeds.
3. Visit some of my site sponsors.
4. Leave comments. I love it when folks leave comments and I reply to every single one.
5. Want to see a particular topic? Let me know.

Biking to Live Week 5 Summary

Posted by Bryan on May 25, 2008 in Blog, Uncategorized | 7 comments

This was a good week of riding. I managed to get all three of my weekday rides in as well as a longer Saturday ride. The shift to my Cannondale R-300 has dramatically helped me improve my speed.

Here are the totals for this week:

Monday: 11.52 miles, 52:26, 16.1 mph max, and 13.1 mph avg
Wednesday: 11.51 miles, 53:35, 18.2 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg (first ride on the Cannondale)
Friday: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg
Saturday: 25.14 miles, 1 hr 36 min, 20.8 mph max, 15.6 mph avg

Even though Wednesday way my first ride on The Crotch Rocket my average speed was still about the same due to taking it easy. I was riding with my brother-in-law who was riding a hybrid and if I hadn’t taken it slow I would have dropped him pretty quick. On Friday and Saturday though you can see a substantial increase in the average speed.

I also passed 200 miles this week since starting Biking To Live and this weeks mileage puts me at 241 miles total.

I can’t tell you how much better I feel since embarking on this journey. Not only is my biking improving but my health is too. My weight loss has been minimal (less than 5 pounds) but improvements in my blood pressure and heart rate has been dramatic. I had another doctor’s visit this week to follow up on some blood work and my resting heart rate had dropped 3 beats and my blood pressure is normal for the first time in a long time. The doc called my blood pressure perfect. I’m still taking meds for it but by the time I lose all this weight I hope to be able to come off of them. Time will tell.

As I said, my weight hasn’t changed much at all but I am seeing drastic changes in the fit of my clothes. I believe I’m burning the fat off but am replacing it with muscle with riding I’m doing. I talked with the doctor about this and he seemed to agree with me. He also said that losing 5 pounds in a month isn’t bad at all because you should be taking it off slowly (approx 1-1.5 pounds per week). If I follow the 1 pounds per week thumbrule then I’m right on track. He told me that as long as my clothes are getting bigger then I’m doing it right. He just cautioned me to watch my diet (which I am) and to start taking a multi-vitamin (which I will).

Pete over at Cycle Pig has started a new weekly series called The Weekly Oink where he summarizes some of the great content he’s found throughout the week. This week, one of the links he’s shared was a video documenting the construction of a bicycle helmet. Very fascinating. You should check it out.

Six month checkup complete

Posted by Bryan on May 8, 2008 in Blog, Medical | 2 comments

Yesterday I had to go do my six month checkup with the doctor. For those that don’t know me, I absolutely hate going to the doctor and hate hospitals even more. I needed to go back in to have my blood pressure checked. My blood pressure has never been really bad but always borderline. Couple that with my horrific family history and I’m on blood pressure meds.

The nurse checked me in, took my BP and pulse, and I waited for the doctor. He came in and said my BP and pulse were excellent. We talked about my recent return to bicycling to lose weight, how I’m doing it, mileage so far, diet modifications, and weight goals. All-in-all it was a very good talk. I guess I was fortunate that I had to have this visit and it coincided with the beginning of Biking To Live.