K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple Stupid...

Aaaahh.......the New Year's Resolution time is upon us. The time when we swear on whatever is most holy that we will follow through this year on a new resolution. "gonna lose 20 lbs....." "gonna quit smoking...", "gonna eat healthier...", "gonna stop surfing porn sites at work..."

What ever your worry-stone becomes for the new year, it should be assimilated so easily that it doesn't create added stress to everyday life. Why rob Peter to pay Paul? Why should it be a great sacrifice that is consuming every waking moment? I've tried doing calorie counting this past year and gained back 12 pounds over 6 months. WTF? I got good at identifying every food's required energy expenditure to maintain my weight and it served no good results. I gained the weight mostly from not exercising as much while still consuming the same calories. It was mostly a stress filled year of laziness. That may be an oxymoron.

I'm planning to keep it simple this year and go back to what worked for me 3 years ago when I dropped over 40 pounds in 9 months and got much stronger and faster on the bike. And, I did it in a healthy way rather than like most people do --> stop eating altogether. All that does is put your body in fat-packing mode.

It's just 4 simple things this year:

1st- Spread out my eating.
Rather than packing a full belly at prescribed times during the day, I'm going into "snack mode" to ramp up the metabolism. This doesn't mean Little Debbie's, crackers, and cokes from the junk vendor, but rather eating small meals 5-8 times a day to keep the growler from getting angry. Eating a small portion of baked chicken breast, fruit, unsalted mixed nuts, yogurt, etc. throughout the day instead of big meals.

2nd - Just ride.
I've got cold weather gear, rain gear for sprinkles, enough ways to carry water during hot days that 5 other riders needn't carry bottles, so why shouldn't I be riding? It doesn't have to be an epic ride, nor a ride for the sole purpose of seeing black spots of oxygen deprivation while trying to time the explosion of muscle and ligament fibers with complete exhaustion. Although I do enjoy those rides......

3rd - Enjoy the scenery.
It may be cliche to state the obvious fact that we only pass this way once, but I've missed a lot of my surroundings in each of my hobbies these last few years because I was focusing solely on whatever the goal was at that time. So, I plan to look around a bit in the coming months to see what I'm missing. I can honestly say that the only time I actually enjoyed flying this past year was on two occasions because I got to see what was around me rather than worrying about the next challenge. On road rides, I've only focused on the wheel in front of me or the 30 yards directly ahead on the open road. Just concentrating on breathing, eating enough, and drinking enough while keeping up and not getting dropped. I use to enjoy talking to whoever was on the rides, but I don't believe I got to know anyone this last year on the bike. And that's a shame. I enjoyed what little moutain biking I've done this past year, but we've got to start visiting other trails as I've become really tired of Thomson.

4th - "Just smile and wave boys.....smile and wave."
I guess the penguins from Madagascar said it best. There's no sense in stressing over the things you cannot change and no sense in creating stress for others.