Introductions are in order

Hi, my name is Josh. You may know me already, you may not. I was on a VH1 television show called "Money Hungry", which was essentially the bastard child of Biggest Loser, I Love Money, and some would say the Real World. That is about the extent of which we'll be talking about the show, because this is the story of what happens after, this is the story of me reaching my goal weight.

We pick up in the middle of my journey, but don't worry we still have a long way to go. To date I have went from nearly 450 pounds to 313 pounds when I left the show. Due to contractual issues I cannot reveal my current weight, but I will posting weekly losses. My goal, however, is to reach 200 pounds at a sub-15% bodyfat. I figure having come from 450 pounds at over 60% bodyfat, this is a good goal. :-)

I've recently moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma, after having been gone for over 10 years. I spent a week or so rediscovering all of the places I used to love eating. Now I'm back on track and ready to kick some butt and take some names. I decided a few days ago to start blogging again, but I wanted to make sure I was really back on point before putting myself back out there for the world to see.

So, having rejoined a gym and been back on track nutritionally, I decided today was the day. I talked to my roommate John Foster (I tend to always call him by his first and last name, don't know why, but I do) into going on a bike ride with me. My normal ride is to the gym (7.5 miles), lift weights, and ride back. However, today for some reason we were thinking of a 20ish miler.

The problem with the route that I had plotted was threefold.

1 - I have chosen a route that was supposed to go TO the river, and then we were to turn around. However, when we got to the river I was all about trying out the river trails. You see, Tulsa has invested a LOT of money into the river trails, and so I couldn't resist.

2 - I need to learn to look at elevation when planning a bike route. I thought Tulsa was flat until we got going. The first 7-ish miles were on the road, so we stuck to back roads. The first few miles were pretty level, but after that we ran into steady rolling hills all the way until we hit the trail. I would say a few of the hills were a pretty steady 5-6% incline for a quarter mile at a time. The downhills seemed to be shorter. We would learn on the way back that this was NOT the case. This route turned out to literally be 'uphill both ways', thank god there was no snow (haha, get it?). My bottom run was not working right for some reason so I was stuck in the middle cog and forced to grind out the hills. I think I bottomed out at around 5 mph on one of the brutal hills.

3 - The wind. When I lived in Arizona the wind seemed to always be dead, and it was so hot you were praying for wind. However, in Oklahoma, the wind truly does come 'sweeping across the plains'. The wind was pretty steady at around 20 miles per hour from the south. So if you look at the map below you can see that we were running right into it, and at times had a nasty crosswind. The gusts were up to 35 miles per hour, and I swear they hit on the uphills every time.

Aside form those three things, the ride was pretty epic! When we hit the turnaround I ran into QuikTrip (best gas station in the WORLD) and grabbed a Gatorade G2 and a little Andes mint. The combination of the little bit of sugar in the Andes mint and the electrolytes in the G2 gave me the energy I needed to grind the way back.

Our split was much faster on the way back, mainly due to the wind and wanting to make it back in time to get some lunch. John Foster and I both guessed what time we would arrive back home, I guessed 1:11pm and he guessed 1:16pm. We pulled into the driveway at 1:13pm, talk about us both knowing our limits and pacing pretty well.

I knew I was under a bit on hydration, but didn't realize how much until I finally managed to go pee. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I need to work on the on-cycle hydration. I am going to start using my Running Food Chia Seeds to help with this, but I didn't want to test things out on a 30 mile bike ride.

Final Distance: 30.6 miles
Final Time: 2 Hours, 40(ish) Minutes
Average Speed: Somewhere between 11 and 12mph
Elevation: Low (607), High (774), Ascent (377), Descent (-374) *
Perceived Rate of Exertion: 8/10
Total Calories Burned: 3,389 **

* As you can see by the Ascent/Descent numbers, it really was uphill both ways.
** Total calories burned estimated by averaging the results of 5 calories burned calculators**

After the ride we rode over to Bogey's Hamburgers, which was another place I had not been in over 10 years, and we had a nice post-ride meal. While having a cheeseburger and fries is not the BEST post-workout meal, when you drop over 3,000 calories in a single workout I think it is 'ok'.

I will be posting pics next time we take a ride, but with today being my first ride with John Foster, I wanted to ensure we were focused on safe and efficient riding. Tomorrow will be a bodyweight exercise day as it is supposed to storm all day here in Tulsa. I'm hoping I'm able to walk without looking like the old man from "Up".

Hide your friends, Hide your mom, Hide your wife, Hide your husband, cause we working out all over!