Diet and Fitness (and a new truck?) (Spearfish, SD)

No we did not drop off the face of the earth.  Since my last post Debbie and I have primarily  been significantly preoccupied with a diet.  We started the South Beach Diet on July 20.  Briefly, the diet is all about minimal carbs and sugars.  Now please know that you are hearing from a carb junkie.  I have an enormous sweet tooth and man can live by bread alone (nearly!) So the first two weeks are fairly harsh.  To me it sounds very much like Atkins but they claim not.  But anyway, since the beginning we have been living on chicken, fish and tuna ( oh yeah, tuna is fish), vegetables and cheese. Clearly no bread, potatoes, rice, processed foods, fruits or pastries.  Did you know that white bread is as harmful as heroin?  We're now convinced that's true!  Even as I write about this it sounds mighty unpleasant but in fact it hasn't been too bad.  The first few days were a little weird but then things seem to smooth out.  As of this moment we are on day twelve and we've come to enjoy much of what we're doing.  We still want some of the stuff we're missing but as we progress with the diet we can return to more normal eating habits only hopefully employing a little restraint that hasn't existed in the past. But the proof is in the pudding (sugar free).  I've lost 11-12 pounds and Debbie has lost 8-9.  Next time you see us you may say "the weight loss looks good" or you may say "I thought you were on a diet?"  Of course the challenge will be to incorporate the diet into our life.  Time will tell. 

Now for the fitness. I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog about the 62 year old mountain biker (Tim) who is a fellow volunteer.

Tim

Some time ago he took 3 of us on our first mountain biking ride and we nearly puked out our guts...but it was great.  He also wet our appetite for biking as a great workout. I started slowly but I've been picking up momentum. I ride 3 or 4 days a week and routinely do 15 to 25 mile rides with 29 miles as my longest ride.  This is a great area to ride.  Within a couple of miles you can be out of town, on well compacted gravel roads with almost no traffic and headed for the mountains.  Routinely my rides include 1000 to 1500 feet elevation change.  So every ride includes lots of challenging hills but you also get to come down the hills. Plus the scenery is stunning.  Here's a few shots from one of my rides near sunset.  No Debbie didn't go along.  I took these with our small pocketsize camera.

It's become a great activity.  Again, I hope to stick with it as part of our lifestyle.  Debbie has done equally as well with her own exercise program.  Most mornings she's out at 8 am to walk with some of the ladies.  They routinely cover 5+ miles.  I walked one morning with Debbie and she keeps an impressively brisk pace.  She also sometimes adds her walking tapes to her daily activities.  So we're doing our diet and adding a heavy dose of exercise.  We're excited so we'll keep you posted but I promise not to ramble on about it endlessly.

Oh yeah, we do still have life beyond dieting.  Our volunteer routine cruises along very nicely, we're enjoying our new friends and we will forever love Spearfish.  The other day I did an 8+ mile hike with Bill, Rena (fellow volunteers, now good friends and the folks that turned us onto the South Beach Diet by sharing their success) plus two of their lady friends from Canada.  The weather threw us a curve.  We were to meet outside our camper at 7am and at 6:45 it was pouring rain.  We decided not to hike but we had to go meet the Canadian ladies at the trail head because we couldn't reach them by phone.  Debbie didn't go because we didn't imagine for a moment we were going to hike so she stayed home.  When we got to the trail head 30 minutes later it was nothing but blue skies.  So we hiked.  Debbie missed a great outing, we missed Debbie, but you miss out on most of the beautiful  scenery because Duane was the photographer.  Here's a few shots anyway.

One more tidbit.  We're shopping for a new truck.  That's somewhere between exciting and aggravating.  Maybe next post will include pictures of a new truck?

I imagine little of what I've written about this go around is particularly interesting but it's what we're doing at the moment.  Thank you for listening.  It's nice to know you're out there! 

Dreamer of Donuts,

Duane