Biggest Loser Final Week

The week before Memorial Day was the final week for the third installment of The Biggest Loser where I work.  We started this round right after Thanksgiving and now 6 months later, it's over.  There were 7 of us doing it and 3 of us actually lost 20+ pounds.  Since winnings are based on percentages though, the final weeks were coming down to me and one other guy that started off 10 pounds lighter than me.  The third guy is 300+, so while he was leading in total pounds lost for a while, he wasn't really threatening for the percentage lead.  Like I've mentioned in a few posts, I've had the overall lead for a month or two now, but the race was still close, and it's narrowed through the month of May as I spent about 3 weeks right around 202.  I finally broke the 200 mark with a week to go, and knowing the other guy was a former wrestler (meaning he knows every trick for dropping water weight), I figured I'd need to pull out all the stops to hold on at the end.  I decided that to be safe, I needed to try and shoot for about 195 to make sure I held on.

I haven't seen a number like this since 2000.

I rode to work the Thursday that I broke 200, so I had the ride home that night to work off some of my lunch, then I took it easy on Friday, but at home that night, I could hear a concert going on at the town center from my house.  After looking on the city's web site, I saw that there was free food, so I decided to ride my bike up there to get some of it.  Really, all I was interested in was the snow cone (after I'd stopped to get one on the way home), but it got me on the bike that day.  The concert was a country band that I wasn't interested in staying for (country music is not my thing), so after I got my snow cone, I came home.

Saturday my wife and I took the kids to Grant's Farm so they could have fun feeding the goats.  When we got there, they had a deal to get 2 milk bottles, a ride on the merry-go-round, and a snow cone for $5, so we we got the kids those passes.  K is big enough that she went in the pen with the goats, but I stayed outside and let J feed them through the fence.  After that, we took them on the merry-go-round, but J didn't want to get off, so I took him on that again while K went to feed the goats again.  After a snack in the food court and an unwilling elephant cut the elephant show short, we headed out and decided to go over to the Belleville Art Fair.  We stopped at Fazoli's (one of my favorite fast food places) on the way over there where I ate more spaghetti than I probably should have.  I think I might have made up for it by carrying J around most of the art fair.

Sunday was the Bicycle Fun Club Strawberry ride, so even though it was pushing 90 with a pretty strong wind out of the west, I did the 55 mile extra long route with Jules, Greg (his first ride of the year), and Kristen.  After those miles, I didn't feel guilty about the Pepsi and strawberry shortcake a la mode afterwards.

Monday I rode into work, but I needed to make a trip to the bike shop after work.  On the way home the previous Thursday, my grip tape started unraveling, so I needed to get some new tape put on.  With the shop being in Maplewood, I decided to take the bus down there and back, so instead of the 28-30 miles I usually put in on the days I ride, I only got 21 miles in that day.  Coupled with Mr. Goodcents for lunch, I was set back a bit on the scale.  Bread is so awful for losing weight. 

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment at 2:00, so I had scheduled to take the afternoon off work.  My dentist is over in Illinois, so I packed my bike and decided to go for a ride on the MCT Trails while I was over there.  I parked where IL 157 crosses the Nickel Plate Trail, then headed out to Alhambra & Worden before coming back, which got me 55+ miles in that day.  Even with Burger King before I headed out, I managed to work off the weight from Mr. Goodcents and was showing 196 on the scale at my parents' house.

Wednesday was my make or break day.  I didn't do anything crazy at lunch time, then after work I went over to Greensfelder with Scott & Brad.  Unfortunately, I got a flat just a few miles into the ride, so that took enough time to change that I didn't feel like a second lap when I got back to the parking lot.  I was going to risk that one lap would be enough.  When I got home, the scale was showing 195.0, so I was getting close to where I needed to be.  Since the official weights are in work clothes (for obvious reasons), I wanted to be 193.5-194.0 at home to make sure I was around 195 at work.

Waking up Thursday, I was disappointed to see that I'd only dropped 1/2 a pound overnight.  I didn't really want to ride into work that day because they were forecasting temperatures into the low 90's, but I wanted to get something of a ride in.  I decided to throw the bike on the car and ride the levee trail before work.  I parked in the middle of the trail and rode to one end and back (8 miles round trip) which was all I had time for, so if I was going to win, it would have to be based on that.  After doing 140+ miles already that week, my legs were shot, and I was just cruising on this ride - 13-14 mph rather than the 17-19 than I will do on that trail when I'm feeling good and the winds aren't crazy.

After getting into work and taking a shower, it was time for the test.  I got my witness and headed for the scale.  As I stepped on the scale, I was told that as long as I didn't gain, I had the overall win.  When 192.8 showed up, I was shocked!  After seeing 194.5 when I left home, I did not expect something that low.  So that not only got me the overall win, I won the weekly jackpot as well and went home $84 richer that day.

***Epilogue***

So now that it's 2 1/2 weeks later, have I kept it off?  Obviously, there was a lot of water weight lost that last week so 193-195 probably isn't realistic right now.  Unfortunately, with Memorial Day and parties for my daughter's birthday the last two weekends, I have been back over 200 for most of the last week, but not by much (~202), and 6 months ago I would've been ecstatic to see a number like that. 

After riding 500 miles in May to win the competition, June has started slowly.  My legs needed to recover some after that last week.  I only have about 75 miles in 10 days so far, and 70 of those were Saturday.  I also have indulged in all of the things I was avoiding for most of the competition, so now that I've done that, it's time to start watching myself again.  Hopefully this blog will keep me honest.  With a little self-discipline, maybe I can be down at 190 by the end of the summer.