Slow Poke

WEATHER THERE: sunny, -5C (-7C with windchill), 5 km/hr cross/tailwinds

WEATHER BACK: clear, 4C, 9 km/hr tailwinds

This morning was chilly. Like, people were scraping frost off their windshields and I arrived at work with numb, bright red thighs kind of chilly. I doubled up on my cotton gloves and wore a turtleneck underneath my waterproof shell, but I was still so under-dressed and cold that I felt like my legs were barely moving. According to my bike computer, I averaged about 3 km/hr less speed today than I have the last few days, barely breaking over 21 km/hr. Hitting that minuscule hill at the end of the High Level Bridge felt like punishment, and by the time I crested the hill and made my way up the stairs with my bike in tow, I was panting so hard I felt like I might pass out. Luckily I didn't, but with another cyclist right on my trail going up the stairs I felt some serious crimson-faced embarrassment over how slow and plodding I am today.

I suspect I am not the only one so affected by the drop in temperature, though. Overnight, the number of fellow cyclists I passed on my journey dropped in half - I only saw six people out this morning, and all of them were on the High Level Bridge and on campus. I didn't run into a single cycling soul out there in the west end or downtown. It's getting to that time of year, it seems - where the sane people start to put their bikes away and opt for the bus or the car. And the rest of us - the crazy winter-bikers - start doubling up on socks, breaking out the winter boots and lobster gloves, thermal underwear and ski goggles.

At least it was nicer on the way home. Still, there's a chill in the air - the chill of impending winter. It's upon us, my friends. The snow is bound to come any day now.

To Diet or Not to Diet

WEATHER THERE: sunny, 0C (-3C with windchill), 9 km/hr tailwinds
WEATHER BACK: clear, 5C, 8 km/hr headwinds

I took a long hiatus from cycling over the summer, and after two months without being on the bike I returned to it this past September. However, it's been on a much more part-time basis, as I only work three days per week now instead of five. As much as I've intended to bike to work and use my office for dissertation research on my off days, that hasn't really panned out, so I've been stuck cycling only three days a week and not five so far this year.

Last September, I was amazed with myself for having lost 10 lbs in a month without dieting, just by starting to bike-commute. When my cycling efforts were no longer enough to continue the weight loss, I started dieting too. That's when everything kind of went off the rails. You see, when a person has been overweight since the age of five and going through bingeing and dieting cycles since before she hit puberty, that person can develop some mighty strong and mighty negative associations with dieting. Namely, that restriction leads to starvation which leads to bingeing which leads to weight gain, and inevitably this cycle feeds itself (no pun intended) as the weight gain fuels motivation to diet again.

I mention this because over the past few months I've been at a loss as to what to do. I know that dieting will only lead to negative consequences for myself, but I also feel compelled to do something drastic to reverse the weight I gained when I stopped biking for two months. And it's not a small amount - it took me nine months to lose 40 pounds, and three months to put back on 20. One the one hand, I feel a desperate desire to reverse that trend in a hurry. On the other hand, I know that a lot of that recent weight gain is the result of me trying to diet in lieu of cycling, which inevitably led to bingeing, which inevitably led to more dieting . . . well, you get the idea.

So - the moral of the story is that dieting doesn't work for me. Never has, never will. The question, then, is what to do to lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way without feeling like I'm dieting so that I can avoid falling into the binge-diet cycle again. Any suggestions? I'll keep thinking about it and I'll get back to you on this . . .