I’ve been back on the bike and Zwift for about a month and a half now. The motivation for this was I that I reached nearly 200lbs on the scales for the second time in my life.
Back at the beginning of November, I peaked at 197.9 lbs. Yikes! That’s just not healthy for my 5′ 10″ self.
This is a part of my lifelong roller-coaster ride. Here’s me for the past 8 years.
That low point of about 156 lbs is when I was cycling my hardest. Here’s what I looked like back then.
My mom (the beautiful tiny woman above) thought I was sick.
But I was actually doing things like riding 150 miles from Boston to Windsor, VT…
And riding up and down 6 gaps in Vermont in a single day (120 miles, 12,000+ feet of climbing, with sustained grades of over a mile at 16% and up to 25%).
Lincoln Gap 
Appalacian Gap 
Roxbury Gap 
Rochester Gap 
Brandon Gap 
Middlebury Gap
Those things all happened in 2013 and I was in the best shape of my life.
Life got messy and I lost the ability and motivation to keep cycling and stay in shape. These are from the fall of this year (2018). This is humiliating, but here goes.
me at my absolute worst 
she makes me look good. ok, this is mostly to distract from the other pic.
I want to get back to the before again.
Enter Zwift
Zwift is a game that connects to a smart trainer and as you ride your bike, your actions are captured in a virtual world. Climbing hills feels like climbing and the effort you put out reflects real-world riding.
But similar to real world riding, my love affair with Zwift has had its ups and downs.
Riding alone in the basement is tough.
Enter Twitch
In the past year, my work has brought me over to the Twitch community, a platform full of content creators who live-stream video games, fitness, crafting, cooking, and more. Ever since I saw it, I knew I wanted to get involved but one morning it occurred to me that I could combine my own fitness with creating content on Twitch.
In just a few short months since riding Zwift on Twitch, I’ve lost 15 lbs and gained about that many friends in a small and growing community.
People like MattyAndAnnika, BrokenHipShot, B2Squared and many more have shown up to support and encourage, and even ride together in a virtual world.
That’s pretty cool and just the thing that’s going to keep me motivated through the winter, holidays, and beyond. Stay tuned. Keep an eye on my progress here. Support me by following on Twitch.
hugs my friend