Bike Your Butt Off! by Selene Yeager

Author:Selene Yeager
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2014-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

Secrets of Their Success

CRYSTAL REESE, 34

WEIGHT LOST: 10 pounds, plus 3 inches off her waist

RUSSELL REESE, 36

WEIGHT LOST: 7 pounds, plus 2 inches off his waist

Crystal and Russ were like so many well-intentioned folks I meet. They enjoyed being active and knew they should be active, but, well, life and their jobs (his requires a fair amount of travel) often got in the way. So though they belonged to a gym, they didn’t get there as often as they’d liked to. They were very excited to participate in the BYBO program as a way to kick themselves into gear.

“We have bikes and would like to get in the habit of riding them,” Crystal told us early on. “We also belong to a gym that has Spin bikes, although neither of us has ever used them.” Russ and Crystal are one of those couples who are genuinely best friends as well as husband and wife. They both were eager to learn some new fitness skills they could use together for life.

The first message we got from them was encouraging—and heartwarming. “Just wanted to tell you Russ and I are really enjoying ourselves. It’s nice to ‘have to’ spend time together. : )” And for anyone who’s ever wondered what a difference having a workout partner can make, Crystal’s next message was equally heartwarming, if in a different way: “Our schedules have been all over the map and we have really been out of sync, as you will be able to tell from our workout logs. I must say that having Russ in this 12-week ride has been an encouragement for me. I feel bad for people who do not have the encouragement of their partner.”

Even when their workouts together “limped along,” in Crystal’s words, due to illness, travel snafus, or general fatigue, they kept each other going. And they kept making steady progress as a result. “I have managed to maintain a 10-pound weight loss, which for me is huge,” Crystal noted. “Usually as soon as my main workouts start slipping, I start to gain weight. But I’ve taken advantage of the hotel gyms while we’re traveling and have been staying active otherwise.”

On the food side, both have really benefited from logging their food intake for the first few weeks. Russ, like many of us, chose too many foods from the starch category—rice, potatoes, and pasta. Through the BYBO plan, he learned to create a more balanced plate, one that included more fiber-rich foods and protein at every meal so he could feel satisfied longer. Leslie told him to go ahead and keep his favorite pasta dinners, but to dial back the size of the pasta serving and add shrimp, chicken, or meat sauce to improve the satiety. Russ, who typically ate more than half of his daily calories from dinner to bedtime, also benefited from making a shift in his eating patterns to better fuel up early on.

Crystal benefited from small tweaks to her diet. Swapping veggies for pita chips

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