July 30, 2018
One of the things I most want to do with this Motorcycle Playground “brand” is to talk about struggles I have. I am not a perfectly coifed, flawless rider who glides through the world like a graceful leaf on the wind. No, I am more like the loon who needs a good quarter-mile of frantic running and flapping to get airborne. So, you’re going to see me as I am, warts and all.
Now that I’ve gotten into more ADV (“adventure,” for the uninitiated) and off-road riding, I have discovered I can no longer be complacent about my overall level of strength and fitness for a variety of reasons. Not only is off-road riding more physically challenging, but dropping one’s bike is much, much more likely, and picking it up again is rough when one is wildly out of shape.
Like so many of us, I have utterly let myself go for a considerable number of years, and, now that I’m in my 40’s, fixing that situation is a lot rougher than it used to be. I had gotten myself into pretty stinkin’ good shape in 2004 through running (ick) and Weight Watchers (also ick,) but that only lasted a year because Fuck Running and Fuck Weight Watchers. Still, I liked the result:
In addition to better overall health, a better self-image and more self-confidence, there are very real, pragmatic reasons for me to lose weight for ADV and off-road riding:
- More strength to control the bike and to pick it up when (not if) it falls over;
- The ability to ride off-road better and longer – my legs turn into jelly after a couple of hours right now;
- Increased foot placement on the ground – as my upper thigh becomes thinner, the distance from my hip to the ground will be reduced because it will be a straighter line;
- GO FASTERRRRR – Lighter rider means more available power for the bike; however, this is really not much to worry about with either of my bikes – they’re plenty fast;
- Wider selection of riding gear – like most clothing made for women, plus-size riding gear is only available from a very select few brands.
For me, the main concerns are being able to pick up my bikes, getting my feet more firmly on the ground, and being able to ride harder, longer.
As of this writing, I absolutely cannot pick up my R1200GS. I can’t budge it. At all. This baffles The Cowboy a bit, I think, because plenty of smaller people, including women smaller than I am, can pick up this bike. He, being a giant, can pick it up with one hand like a huge jerk.
There are legitimate physical issues getting in the way, such as a lower back destroyed by three decades of hauling around D to DD breasts and having ruptured a vertebral disc last year, but by and large, it’s just a lack of strength. And that pisses me off.
These wamdigious tatas are a mixed blessing.
I can pick up my KTM 690 Enduro R, but it’s not as easy as it should be – it involves grunting and some back pain (the bike is too light to pick up with the old “butt against the seat” method (it just slides along the ground,) so I’m stuck with wrangling it up by the handlebar like a steer’s horn.) A friend of mine, Skert, actually travels all around teaching people how to properly pick up bikes. Despite having watched her do this for literally decades, it’s not something I can do. Yet.
When I bought the KTM a few weeks ago, I weighed in at 179 pounds. At 5’7″, that’s a fair bit beyond “ideal” overall health guidelines (which are highly debatable, I know – I am not into fat- or body-shaming in any way; I just want to figure out what’s healthy and best for myself here,) and there are also those pragmatic riding benefits above to be had.
Since buying the KTM, I’ve somehow managed to get myself down to 168 pounds without trying very hard, and I’d like to keep that trend going until I get to the mid-150’s (although as I take up yoga again and begin strength conditioning, the number on the scale becomes less relevant, given muscle weighs more than fat.) I am not someone who just “loses weight” without trying – this has literally never before happened in my life. I’m pretty ok with it right now.
I have come a long way: This is me on my wedding day in 2011:
At my heaviest, circa 2013, I was pushing 230 pounds and I was miserable about it. Depression is a bastard, and it was a self-perpetuating cycle, a vortex of doom, an overall awful state of being for me. Eat, feel guilty, get depressed, eat more to fill the void – a time-honored tradition. I also have this thing where I don’t “get thirsty” until I am already dehydrated. For me, thirst registers as hunger for some reason.
I set about an aggressive health and fitness plan that included bicycling 75 miles (eventually – I started at about 10 miles) a day, three to four days a week, appropriate food choices, yoga, and a medically-supervised weight loss program. On the days I wasn’t bicycling, I spent 2 hours at the gym (I wasn’t working full-time then, so this was much easier for me to do than for many people with normal work schedules.)
That’s me on the right. circa 2015.
Quite a few of my friends were, at that time, having a surgical procedure called a sleeve gastrectomy performed, and holy wow did they ever get results, but I knew it wasn’t for me – that was a one-way ticket to Foreverville that would essentially prevent me from ever enjoying many of the simple pleasures in life – I just don’t have that kind of discipline. I’d fuck it all up somehow, and wind up in the emergency room with an exploded pouch, I’m sure.
The pounds came off, quickly at first, and then far less so. In mid-2014, I was in the mid-180’s and much happier, but still had a long way to go. I struggle-bussed my way to 175, having dropped from a size 22 to a size 14/16, and there my body said “NO MORE. SCREW YOU, MAN, WE ARE DONE HERE.” I let it boss me around for over a year – even a 1600-calories-per-day diet just kept the status quo. I wasn’t exercising because I didn’t have the energy or motivation.
In the summer of 2017, my weight was still right in the same place, but I was not: I moved from Michigan to San Diego to get the everloving hell out of Michigan and into someplace where I could ride my motorcycle year-round on amazing roads. Wish granted.
One would think being out here, surrounded by fit bodies and having so many outdoor activities at my disposal, I would launch myself into becoming a person who does outside things other than motorcycling. One would be largely wrong – other than snorkeling (which will also benefit greatly by losing weight and being in better health overall,) I’ve spent the vast majority of my time on the bike(s).
Motorcycling is not a high-calorie-burning activity. It involves only slightly more effort than, say, sitting at one’s desk. There are ways to make it more active, however, such as doing core muscle flex/holds while riding, standing up and sitting down a bunch (the moto equivalent of squats,) and so on.
Very seldom will I do anything because “it’s good for me;” that’s just not sufficient motivation. I’m predominantly vegetarian not because it’s healthy, but because I cannot abide factory farming and the overall treatment of animals in our culture and because it’s a contributing factor for environmental damage from many angles. Thus, I never was any good at losing weight because it was a good idea, healthwise.
Thus, this post is a public-facing motivator to keep the motivation going for all the reasons. I’ll let you know how it goes, and, as always, thanks for reading.