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I had a bunch of people write me about my post yesterday, specifically about the Fitbit Flex.

Last year a friend of mine got one and used it to lose over sixty pounds.  If they can do it so can I.

The Flex is the lowest of the Fitbits only counting steps and sleep.  I joke that I’m on a fixed income but honestly I’m pretty frugal.  I don’t mind spending money on my family but hate spending cash on myself.

The higher end Fitbits count stairs and show the steps numerically on the wrist.  I didn’t feel that I needed that.  The Flex has five L.E.D.s that light up as you get to each level.  Since I am walking ten thousand steps I get one light per two thousand steps.  It pairs perfectly with my iPhone 5s showing steps in real time.  If I’m walking I can see the steps update as I walk.  When I reach my goal the Flex vibrates.  It’s a good feeling.  The vibration can also be used as a silent alarm.  I use it when I need to get up and not bother the wife.

The recent update has it monitor your sleep automatically.  It senses when you are sleeping and gives you a report of the quality.  I found that I normally get seven hours sleep with seventeen minutes of restless sleep.

The biggest thing about it for me is how it motivates me.  If at ten o’clock at night I find I have eight thousand steps I get out and get my final two thousand.  I plan to increase the step count five hundred steps every two weeks.  When I get on the bike I still plan to keep doing the steps.  This is my year to do it and it feels good.

I’ve been fat for a very long time.  When I was in my late twenties I gained eighty pounds in one year.  I was incredibly active doing heavy manual labor and taking karate.  I kept cutting my calories down but gaining a couple pounds a week no matter what.  I went to my doctor and all he could say was to limit my intake.

This went on until I found a lump in my neck and was diagnosed with a large thyroid tumor.  There is a long story that I may share someday but I had surgery and had it successfully removed.  It was benign and I was fine.  I take a thyroid substitute daily and have no real issues other than my eyes seem to dry out in the winter a great deal easier.  That is a minor complaint and if I take precautions it doesn’t cause any problems.

Over the years I used that excuse to explain my weight.  I have a thyroid problem and that is why I can’t lose weight.  Plus I used the bullshit that I carry it well.  I don’t.  Most people are incredibly nice to me and lie.  I hear, you look good, you don’t need to lose much.  Bullshit.

I’m at an age now where there is no more artifice.  I look in the mirror and see a retiree who has far more weight on himself than there should be.  There is only one reason I am overweight, and it’s not my poorly performing thyroid gland.  I eat too much and I don’t exercise enough.  Plus I love carbs.  I don’t care if it is pizza or saltine crackers.  I love it.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been moving away from carbs, trying to eliminate as many as possible.  The few carbs I get are from salads and vegetables.   I’m avoiding sugars with a passion.  I’m already seeing small results.

I’ve started drinking more water every day.  Trying to drink a gallon a day.  That seems to be making a real difference both in my appetite and my skin.

Exercise.  Now that is where the biggest change has occurred.  I bought a Fitbit Flex and use it every day.

I walk ten thousand steps daily.  I found that when it is bitter cold I don’t want to do it so I joined a gym not too far from here.  It’s not hard to drive the ten minutes and then walk for an hour.

Once the weather breaks in a few months I’ll be on the bike as often as I can.  But I will continue with the walking.

No more fooling myself.  I’m in it for the long haul.

I friend sent me a link about a woman in England who is attempting to break the world record for Furthest Miles Cycled in a Year by a woman.   Interesting goal.  The record is seventy-seven years old and set by Billie Fleming (Dovey) who rode 29,603 miles on a three speed road bike.  Good luck to her.

The thing that surprised me was that she isn’t trying to raise money for some cause or charity.  Instead she is trying to encourage people to become more active and pledge twenty minutes of activity a day.  Instead of donating money she wants you to donate minutes of activity to get healthy.  I can get behind that.

Since I live in LaGrange, Ohio and close to Oberlin I see a lot of cyclists loaded down doing the Underground Railroad (UGRR) bike route.  It goes from Mobile, Alabama to Owen Sound, Ontario and is 2,006.5 miles.  It is one of the rides that I plan to do someday.

As I said I see a lot of these riders, a couple every few weeks and always stop and offer food, lodging or anything they may need.  All are friendly and some are foreign.  Every third on, or so, tells me that they are doing it to raise awareness for breast cancer, dioxins, income inequality, solar power, you name it.  I want to ask them how them riding their bike will do that.  Every once in a while a small town paper puts a small article about the weirdo riding his bike thousands of miles and they mention that he’s doing it to raise awareness of gill nets or whatever.  People who care about such issues already know and those who don’t really don’t care.  It’s like Susan G. Komen raising money to bring awareness about breast cancer.  Who doesn’t know about breast cancer?

Perhaps I’m being obtuse but I just want to tell the cyclist to just ride.  Telling me that the black rhino is nearly extinct isn’t going to help them.  I’m aware, but as a lumpen proletariat I’m powerless and most people are doing what they can.  I’m glad that there are people out there who are trying to change things, I just don’t think riding a bike is going to do much.

Perhaps I’m getting old.

My mini-rant is over.  This is my year for cycling.  Global climate change is happening and my riding a bike and encouraging others might help a bit but I don’t need to raise awareness.  I just need to get this fat ass onto the saddle.

This has been a terrible year for cycling and a good and bad year for me.

My brother seems to have been cured of cancer (we will know for sure next month when he has a PET scan).  He has a car and a new life.

My daughter has moved a thousand miles from us and leaves a surprisingly large hole in our world.  Skype is nice but hardly a substitute.

My weight is up but that is temporary.  I have plans.

I’m going to get on the bike every opportunity that I can.  This will be a year of hours in the saddle.  The plan is to improve this blog by taking more pictures and telling more stories.  I’m going to add Veloviewer to my rides to give a better description.  For example here is a ride that I did this year when I rode to Chatham.

As I approach sixty (nine months away) I long to see old friends.  People I know have scattered to the four corners of the world.  I think it’s time for some trips.  Plus I’ve never been to Las Vegas and it is time.

Since my mother died two years ago I’ve had an odd sense of mortality.  For the first time in my life I can feel time running out.   I remember reading W. H. Auden, “Death is the distant sound of thunder at a picnic.”

I have many years left, it’s just that they are finite.  I want to use them to their fullest.  Cycling is a big part of my future.  Come with me and explore the small towns of Ohio and possibly the world.

This has been a horrible year for cycling.  That said my brother is cured of cancer and has a chance of staying that way.  The doctors say if he avoids drinking and smoking he was around around a 25% chance of cancer returning.  The bad news is that if it returns he probably won’t be able to beat it again.  It’s up to him now.

The New Year is approaching and I have a lot of plans.  I will be riding every chance that I get.  I want to explore and see everything.  I was looking at my Canon T3i yesterday and I realized how few pictures I took.  I took a large number with my iPhone but there was a time when I considered myself a serious photographer.  The best picture I took this year was when I was in Boulder, Colorado and took this at The Garden of the Gods.

Since I’ve retired my life has been expanding exponentially.  Being raised by an agoraphobic I’ve never traveled.

Since this is a cycling blog I don’t want to talk too much about my other pursuits, chess, guitar, genealogy, banjo and poker.

I’ve been walking every day and riding the trainer every night.  Instead of concrete goals this new year I want to get on the bike as much as possible and visit as many little towns as possible.  I’ll be sixty in August and I’d like to be as fit as possible.

I will be rejoining the Silver Wheels Bicycle Club and starting with the Lake Erie Wheelers.  Between the two I will have plenty of rides.  Plus I will be meeting like-minded people.

If you’ve been looking at this blog every once in a while and were disappointed, forgive me.  It will get a lot better.  I plan to attack the road this year.

Saw this video of a cyclist ignore a train crossing gate that was down and runs into a bullet train that is going ninety miles an hour.  According to the site he was knocked unconscious but was otherwise ok.  Ouch.

Once my brother had healed sufficiently he needed to get a drivers license.  He hasn’t driven in twenty years and no license for twenty-five.  It was time.

I needed to get him up to speed so I had him get behind the wheel of my Ford Ranger Pick-Up.  After he adjusted the seat, mirrors and wheel he started pumping the gas pedal.  I asked what he was doing.  He said he was sending gas to the carburetor.  I explained that all cars now use fuel injection and that pumping the pedal would do nothing.  He’s been away from the world so long I call him Rip Van Stupid.

He drove too close, too fast, too few turn signals and too fast around corners.  I tried to channel my 37 years of UPS experience into him.  I gave him a crash course in driving.  He had no idea you used a turn signal at stop signs.  Minutes in the car with him were like hours.  Hours of frustration and fear.

Finally the time came and he drove to Parma for the test.  I had to yell to stop twice as he rushed up behind someone as we prepared to stop.  We found the BMV and he parked so badly that the lady came out and asked us to move.  It was a bad sign.

Finally someone came out and took him for his test.  He was allowed to miss 25 points and still pass.  I watched him take the maneuverability test and cringed as he hit the cones, twice.  Each hit of the cone took off ten points.  It looked grim.  I closed my eyes and tried to think good thoughts.  It wasn’t easy.

Time passed slowly and he came in with a smile.  He passed.  I have to assume he got a pity pass.  That is the only explanation.  Wow.

Once he gets a car I will be free.  He can go to his appointments and even look for a job.  I will leave this circle of Hell.

As I’ve been writing, I’ve been helping my brother deal with his cancer.  Couple weeks back he needed to have surgery on his neck to remove the remaining lumps and lymph nodes.  Many appointments were made and plans designed.

We went into Cleveland numerous times for testing and meetings.  We were told all of the risks.  There are important nerves that run down the neck and severing them could affect swallowing, talking, etc.  As my brother doesn’t drive I spent many hours each day.  Drive the fifteen miles to his house, wait for him to get ready (he was never ready to go) drive to Cleveland (25 miles or more), sit in a waiting room, drink bad coffee, see a doctor, wait while testing, drink more coffee, more testing, forget where the car was in the parking garage, find it, head home and do all of the errands he needs.

Most days were most of the day.  Finally the day of the surgery came and we got there bright and early.  We were there by nine, meaning I left my house at seven, and he was back in pre-op by ten.  I went out and had a bagel and studied some chess.

Around eleven I was allowed back to see him.  He looked pretty good.  It’s amazing how much weight he has lost.  He was upbeat and they sent me back to the chessboard.

Seidman Cancer Center is a great place.  They give you a pager like they have in restaurants.  I was able to take my set to the cafeteria and study.  Every two hours they update.  While studying a young doctor challenged me to a game of speed chess,  easiest five dollars I’ve ever made.

He was in surgery for nearly seven hours.  Then I had to wait for him to get out of recovery.  He was out of it when I saw him and you could tell it was major surgery.  I left at 9:30pm exhausted from doing almost nothing.

He stayed in the hospital for three days and he is doing well.  The surgeon was able to avoid the nerves and the only side effect is he can’t feel his ear.

The week after was follow-ups after follow-up.  Soon I will be free.

You never know what you are going to find when you surf the internet.

There is a movement in Russia where Russian youth attempt to enforce traffic regulations.  They carry large stickers and try to reason with people not to drive on bike paths, sidewalks, etc.  They are pretty badass standing up to people who try to be tough.  This stuff is NSFW and has some pretty nasty language.  I was a Teamster UPS driver for thirty-seven and heard things that could melt ear wax.  Two warnings.  First, the language is bad.  Second, these videos are incredibly addictive.  Luckily I was on the bike on my trainer so it wasn’t too bad.

My favorite part is when the cops come and shake the hands of the activists.