Bill's 20/20 Lifestyle Program

I did a pretty keeping my weight off for quite a while, but my work got very stressful and slowly I put weight back on.  I put on about 7 pounds and was at about 190 when I started cycling pretty regularly, including commuting to work regularly.  However, after about a year and a half, I took a job that required significant travel, and the eating I'd been doing as a cyclist did not work as a non-cyclist.  I put on more weight, getting to about 205. :-(

At about this time, my family and I moved to Arizona and I took yet another job that also involved significant travel.  I continued to put on weight until I got to about 210, which was just 10 pounds less than my starting weight on the 20/20 program.  Needless to say, this was very disappointing.

At this point, my wife and I decided to take decisive action: a doctor friend of my brother-in-law runs a medical weight loss center.  We decided to go there as a team.  I knew how to keep the weight off, but getting the weight off slowly was not something I was very good at.  So she and I did a medically supervised fasting program to get a bunch of weight off quickly.  Basically, I went from 211 to 183 in about 10 weeks which is where I am at right now.  I also managed to get off my high blood pressure medicine which is pretty great as well.  My wife dropped over 20 pounds and is looking great.

Now that I live in Arizona, I am doing a significant amount of cycling.  This has become my primary form of excercise, and I really enjoy it.  I am keeping the weight off by riding, and this has been pretty successful so far.  

One of the things that helps me stay exercising is to plan on doing events that I have to train for.  When I was running, it was 5Ks, 10Ks, and half-marathons.  Now that I'm cycling it's half centuries, metric centuries and centuries.  So far this year, I've ridden the 85 mile route of El Tour de Tucson and plan to ride a metric century (62 miles) for the Phoenix Tour de Cure, a full century plus another 50 miles at the Sedona MS Bike 150, and some long ride at the Livestrong Challenge in Davis, CA (with Team Fatty).  These give me something to train for and keep me on the bike, burning calories and improving my fitness all the while.

I am no longer on the 20/20 program, and will no longer be blogging at this site.  If you want to find out what I'm up to now, check out tdf2012.blogspot.com.  On this blog, I'm writing about the planning I'm doing to prepare for a trip to the 2012 Tour de France, as well as lots of posts about my cycling exploits.

In closing, I am glad I did the 20/20 program, and felt that it was very successful for me.  Even though I put some of my weight back on, I was able to correct that situation (albeit with a pretty major intervention), but now that the weight off again, I know I have the tools to keep it off.  In addition, I have learned how to eat right, exercise effectively, and the tricks that help me stay training.  While I wish I'd not fallen off the wagon, I am back on and doing all the right things again, and am feeling good.  I really think I might actually end up weighing less than I did when I was on the 20/20 program.

It was a lot of fun doing this blog, and I heartily recommend the 20/20 program to anyone who is looking to lose weight.  Check my current posts out at Tour de France Travellog.