According to the latest medical charts, a man my height and build should weigh in somewhere between 170 and 185 pounds.  At one point, I tipped the scales at a knee-popping 290+, but lost about 80 pounds over a six month period through diet and exercise.  I could have stood to lose another twenty or so, according to doctors, but I was happy and pretty healthy at just over 210 pounds.  It was a far cry from constantly knocking things over with my butt whenever I turned around.

That was about four years ago.  Unfortunately, since that time several holiday seasons have passed and while my summers are exercise-filled, my winters are not.  I am a hibernator, but one who eats while he hibernates – a bad combination.  Over the dreary winter months, I indulge in holiday fare which leads to more indulgence, not holiday-related, which leads to weight gain.  Sure, I could exercise in the winter, but then how would I hibernate?

When the days get warmer, I cut back on the “bad food” intake and poke my head outside the cave more often, eventually climbing onto my bicycle and beginning my exercise regime, which soon includes hiking and tennis.  The weight drops, I feel better, the exercise gets easier and more enjoyable – it’s a great domino effect.  Then the colder months set in, the exercise diminishes to an occasional game of tennis in the months of October and November, then it’s turkey, stuffing and pie, then candy, cookies and ham dinners.  Then it’s too late and before you know it, the weight piles on.  But, soon enough, spring arrives, I jump on the diet again and I’m back out hikin’ and bikin’.  This year, I’m sad to report, I’m starting a little late.

In 2008, the beginning of April marks the turning of my back on crappy garbage food, about two months later than I should have.  I should have also stated exercising a bit indoors just to get myself ready for the grueling road ahead.  And most of that road isn’t paved.

I was turned on to mountain biking about 14 years ago when I quit smoking.  I needed something to take my mind off the cigarettes and decided biking might be fun and healthy at the same time.  I went to a local Ames Department Store and found a relatively new kind of bike, the off-road mountain bike.  You sat higher than on a road bicycle and the tires were knobby for getting grip on soft surfaces.  This was a bike designed to be ridden on trails – and I love the woods, so it sounded perfect.  Next thing I know, I’m riding the trails over at Pawtuckaway State Park with my pal Roger.  Roger had just gotten a mountain bike too, so we learned how not to kill ourselves on some of the toughest terrain for fifty miles.

Soon I convinced my buddy Mike to join us, then Roger found a few more guys and before you know it, we’ve got twelve of us meeting up every Sunday morning to ride 10 miles of rugged mountain trails.  If you’ve never ridden a bicycle off road, it is nothing like riding the paved roads.  First, the trails are rarely flat.  Sharp hills going up and down, often with obstacle such as rocks or roots that must be navigated without falling over the handlebars.  Mud, streams, ruts, fallen limbs, fallen trees, slick boulders, tall grass that gets wound around your rear sprocket – the difficulties are many and constant.  Coasting is rarely an option.

However, the sense of satisfaction you feel at finally pedaling to the top of a hill that you never have quite reached before is phenomenal.  Even more so when you’re traveling with a group and you are one of the few, or perhaps the only one, to successfully traverse a particularly difficult stretch of trail.  The more I get out there and pedal, the easier it becomes to do so and the quicker I recover my breath and am able to continue.  As a child, I never achieved that “second wind”.  I always thought I was just a poor breather, but, as it turns out, I just never pushed hard enough.  I wonder how many others just haven’t pushed themselves hard enough to realize the potential they actually have.

Biking is just one great way to get your metabolism up and burn some calories.  I enjoy hiking too, which uses a completely different set of muscles, so biking isn’t very good practice for hiking steep terrain.  Tennis can be fun, but it’s a high impact sport that can damage joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles and more.  As long as you’re out there doing something and watching what you eat, it’s better than not doing either.

So as I write this, on March 31, 2008, I bid a temporary “farewell” to M&M’s, peanut butter cups, Doritos, sugary cereal, cookies and large portions of anything.  But at the same time I welcome a few things back into my life as well: heart-pounding, sweat dripping (but thoroughly enjoyable) trail rides, back-jarring, leg destroying hikes through the mountains, delicious buffalo chicken salads and finally seeing my Johnson again.  Where ya been, buddy?