264.4

This marks a new lowest weight in about 8 years.

To explain that, about 10 years ago I joined a volunteer group that had a military-esque schedule. Working just about all hours that I wasn't sleeping and eating 3 meals a day in a cafeteria. I didn't really exercise, but the constant general activity and strict eating schedule (I could eat as much as I wanted within 30 minutes during those 3 meals a day, but by just limiting the opportunity to snack it kept my diet fairly low-calorie). I lost about 130 lbs in under a year. I stayed with that group for 2 1/2 years, keeping my weight right around 200 most of that time (I'm 6'3", so that's about the right weight for me with average muscle mass).

Then I left, got married and slowly gained the weight back. I had never been in a relationship before, so it was easy to lose myself in doing whatever you think will make the other person happy. So we ate out a lot and both gained a lot of weight over the course of a few years.

So, with the exception of those couple years where I was in a circumstance that is very unusual outside of the military, I've always been 100 lbs overweight. I hit 200 lbs when I was 12 or 13. I hit 300 around 17 years old. My mom said she first noticed I was significantly overweight when I was 4. Oddly enough, I was a very active kid. I went to a boarding school where a retired Marine drill sergeant came each morning and made us run 3 miles (while he drove behind us in his Cadillac yelling various drill sergeant things) and do sit-ups, push-ups, etc. Through all of that I gained weight continuously.

I'm now trying to truly change my lifestyle to that of an active adult. I think my downfall as a kid was improper diet (not unhealthy, as my boarding school didn't allow sugar or any kind of junk food, but allowed me to eat as much fruit as I wanted, which I think was the main factor in my weight gain). Having experimented with a wide range of diets and found what works for me, I think I can maintain this for the rest of my life.

Not that my new level of activity isn't without challenges. I thought the hardest part of riding my bike 11 miles each way to work every day was going to be just convincing myself to do it each day. So far that's been easy, but I've been running into mechanical problems. I broke a spoke a few days ago, had that replaced. Broke a spoke again the next day, found that the whole wheel is going, had that replaced yesterday. This morning right after I got into work, a co-worker came to tell me that my bike had just scared her half to death when the tire exploded. I checked it out and found the valve stem had just about blown off on the new wheel. I'm hoping that these are all related to the original problem and once I replace that tube, I'll be all set for a while.

-Mike