I LOVE CHRISTMASSSS

So I had a good December!!! I'm changing my blog just to kinda an overview of my life. Here's the story of Christmas break. Enjoy!

I haven't shown many people this. This is just my current collection. I get rid of a few pairs a month. I did a count recently and found out I've easily owned over 100 pairs on Nike's in my life. 

Kids, you know when adults say don't play with icicles. This is just proof you DEFINITELY SHOULD!!!

My ward did Sub-For-Santa...yeah, it's fun pushing around the basket while the girls look for cute clothes for the kids(sarcasm added)

I LOVE COMING HOME AND FINDING A POSTCARD FROM MY BEST FRIEND!!!! Even if they are all wizards and knights. 

He sees you when you're sleeping...yeah Justin and Bryce knocked the cookie santa out of the park during food and friends!

Tavitas manly ability to pour hot water stops Amber and Mandy in their tracks....naw it's his hair. 

I grew out the most amazing stache during Christmas

Our family has a crazy good ability to build ginger bread houses!

My dad was so excited to show us his office. Apparently not many people have asked to visit an electronic engineer's office

Want to know the best way to lure a baby into loving you??? Culvers!!!

Got back from Iowa, sold my Diamondback Mission!

And this cat was soooo stoked to hang out with people!

The garage is kinda cool I guess...

Finally I'm updating this again. 

I've been spending a ton of time downstairs hanging out with my bikes. About a month ago I bought a Jetblack Whisperdrive Trainer. It's one of the best on the market. So...this is kinda a review also. I chose a $700 trainer for these reasons. 

• If you goto a gym, you have to use those stationary bikes with bad seats. The geometry is all off. You can't watch what you want to. 
• I hate the trainers that your back wheel gets locked in. It doesn't work with all bikes. Basically it's not as stable as I'd like them to be. The resistance is annoying because your wheel is touching a rotating part. The fluid is often very loud. 
• I wanted a trainer that would be compatible with a road bike or one of my 12x142 mountain bikes. I put a road cassette on it, turned around the handlebar bc it's more comfortable for long periods of time, threw on foam grips, and adjusted it all. Its been great so far

Here's basically what I've looked like for the past week and a half. 






I've had it all set up for about ten days now and am at 423 minutes. It took me about 8 days to get used to longer rides. Luckily the ESPN 30 for 30 movies have kept me super interested for 100 minutes 2 days ago and 80 minutes today. It's been rad. 

Yesterday I got down to 233 pounds. My clothes have started to become a bit looser. I'm shooting to lose about 25 more pounds. I need to ramp up my weight lifting. Basketball is starting soon so I have to be careful not to break anything. I'm still eating very well. Carbs are down, protein is up. 
I have a goal to get down under 230 before I leave for Christmas break on the 21st. I don't care if it's just water weight. I just want to do it to prove to myself that I got under 230. 

This is what I'm building so that when the season is ready...My almost 40 pounds lighter self will be able to kill it on the trails!!!
















Quick overview of the changes to the bike. 

• Full 2016 Shimano XT Group with Saint Brakes
• 30t chainring
• 11-40 cassette
• 203mm XT Rotors
• Change from Deity Carbon bars to Deity Black Label
• 35mm Deity Decoy Stem instead of 50mm
• 2015 Fox Float X Evol instead of Marzocchi 053 S3C2R
• Anvl Forge Saddle is on it's way. 

This is way overdue!!

 
























So I've realized it's been a very long time since I've posted. 
So...here's the highlights
-I've Ridden 354 miles this year, almost all mountain biking
-50 rides, 49:12 hours, 42532 ft elevation
-241 pounds

-I'm getting a ton better at climbing. Today I beat my old record on a trail in Park City by 9 minutes

-I've been running even though it hurts. I've been lifting 3 times a week and that's been slowing down by weight loss but really getting me a ton stronger.

-I'm on a really strict diet and have been for about 3 weeks. I know most of you will argue but I'm trying to keep my carb intake under 100g/day which is 1/3 of the daily recommendation. I eat more greens and protein.

-My goal by Christmas is 220. This is the weight that I was ten years ago(Interesting fact: I got home from my mission 10 years ago today. My family thought I was going to be fat from all the delicious southern food and were kinda surprised when I came home not any heavier). So yeah, I have 20 some pounds to go.

-I bought an incredibly expensive bike trainer because I hate the stationary bikes at the gyms. This one you take off the rear wheel of your bike and attach it to the trainer. It feels more like the road. I can attach my mountain bike to it so I can be very comfortable on my bike. I may think about switching to clips if I can get used to them.

-I still have way too much bike stuff! I need to get rid of like everything.

-So yeah, life is good. I have a good job, I'm able to work out a good bit, I'm actually reading a book, I'm not eating unhealthy stuff(except for thursday when my favorite meal at dickey's is a special...you gotta have BBQ sometime!! It's just in my blood!!)

I'm gonna make sure I post more on this. I know I've been bad. It's going to be like a life/bike/fitness blog. Feel free to tell everyone!! I can also help answer any bike questions!!

American Fork Canyon Fun

On Monday, June 30 I rode a trail that started at the top of AF canyon and ended up at pineview reservoir with Brandon Peterson and Wray Sinclair. I just met Wray and found out he's pretty dang good with a camera. He shot us along the way and we did a good amount of trails. 

I only had my hardtail and that was super fun although it did get pretty rough and I may have had more fun on my Patrol. I got to try and chase down some dirt bikers on the trail but it got a bit easy so we had to wait for them to get ahead. The trail was about 11 miles. I ended up pedaling out of the canyon and that was another 6 miles. 

So far, since thursday when I started I've ridden 41.6 miles. I'm shooting for 100 and I'm nearly ahead by 4 days already. 

I still need to work on my food a bit better. Obviously with such an increase in activity, I've been so much more hungry and have wanted to eat more. I haven't really, but I've wanted to. I need to cook more healthy stuff so that I could eat more and still work out this much. 

20 miles on a Saturday!!

Today was an awesome day. We started out riding the crest trail in the morning. While waiting for someone to replace a flat, I decided to ride through a park of Desolation Lake. The video turned out pretty amazing!! The ride was amazing. 11.6 miles, beautiful trails. I got to ride my hardtail the whole ride. It climbs super good and was challenging on doing the downhills. I definitely had to choose my lines a ton more. The trail really is amazing. 

I ate at a belgium waffle place with justin so we could get some calories. 

At night, I went up to a trail at Parleys Summit and rode about 5 miles. Saw some friends on the trail. Then afterwards, I rode just some roads with Jamison and Laura. 3.1 miles. It was kinda the final straw to kill my legs. So today I hit 20 miles, so that was pretty amazing on these trails with a ton of climbing. 

Food side, I had to eat a ton of calories today. Breakfast burrito, egg and potato hash with vegetables, and cottage cheese for dinner. I bought a bunch of vegetable to cook some food to take to work for the week. It should turn out well. So yeah, good day!

They say it's the rider, not the bike

So, I realized in order for me to accomplish my goals, I really needed to get a bike that could pedal even better than my Transition Patrol. So, here's my NS Eccentric. The drivetrain has an 11-42 extended range cassette and a Wolf 34t oval ring. XT brakes, deity parts, continental tires, fox 32 float. It's an awesome setup!

Thursday June 25- My first day of this experiment didn't go very well. I was working for 12 hours and was in class for 2 hours. It was a really terrible day and I missed lunch. I was helping out with a focus group at about 7 and they had a bunch of pizza, so i ended up eating a few pieces. So that was pretty bad. I did to a bunch of pushups and sit-ups when I got home at about 11.

Friday June 26- I ate decently well today. Breakfast I had grits and protein. Lunch I had cottage cheese. Dinner I went to sprouts and got a Steak, bean, rice, and vegetable bowl then some cereal when I got home from riding. I tried out my NS Eccentric on Big Springs. The ride was 5.9 miles, 1359 feet of climbing and every one of the climbs was the fastest I ever rode on the trail. The way down took getting used to. I'm used to having rear suspension but by the end, I was having a great time. Such a sick bike!! So yeah, I'm not doing too bad, but I for sure need to do better.

So why am I sharing this now. I'll just share all the stats and important facts and let you know how I got to this stage
This is me, albeit a bit muddy.

-31 years old
-6'1
-250 pounds
-Sleep Apnea
-Slightly high blood pressure
-Graduating with my MBA in about 9 weeks. This and work makes it so I'm sitting down between 12-14 hours a day.
-Tore ACL/MCL Jan 2013. I couldn't run or do much for about 1.5 years.
-Broke Ankle and ligaments Sept 2014
-Am very poor at eating. I am someone who never likes to prepare meals. I just like to get food made and head on with my day. This usually means that I'm not eating incredibly healthy.
-I own just an incredible shed of bikes. 2015 Transition Patrol, 2015 NS Eccentric AL, 2014 Transition Bank and a Traitor Ringleader Custom. These should mean that I'm always on a bike, but for some reason, I always come up with an excuse to not be on a trail.

I've always been a very active person. I enjoy just about every sport and have always been kind of a big person. There's a few things I need to change about my life.

So I'm making some goals:
-Bikes: I need to ride or work out everyday. I'm going to start with a goal of 100 miles on trails over the next 30 days. I should be able to get out and do atleast a few miles a day.
I'll be starting on June 25 and my goal by July 25th is to ride 5 miles per day. I have 27 ridable days because I don't ride on Sundays. I don't care if it's 100 or raining. I just need to get out on my bike. This should be a good goal!

-Running or walking: My ankle is still too bad to do any running. I'm going to make it a goal to walk atleast 5000 steps. I'd like to shoot for 10000 steps, but if I can get over 5000, I'll be happy.

-Lifting: My goal is to lift 3 days a week.

-Nutrition: This is where I have a huge problem. I know I'm not going to be perfect but I'm going to make specific goals to try and eliminate some of the big problems

Breakfast-I want to eat breakfast every morning. I often skip breakfast. I know some argue with me, but I've been eating grits for breakfast quite a bit.

Lunch- I'm going to be trying to eat higher protein lunches. This may not be the healthiest lunch for my day because I'm gone, but I'm going to do my best.

Dinner- I have been shown Healthy Choices Dinners. These seem to be pretty nice to eat. A good choice of food along with some milk should be a decently healthy dinner

Snacks- Just cut out pop and candy completely. This shouldn't be completely challenging. I just have to remember what I'm doing.

In total, I just need to pay attention to what I'm eating every meal. Eating healthy doesn't always have to be boring. Some of my friends eat amazingly while it's healthy.


I'm excited to give this a try for 30 days and see what happens. I don't expect to lose weight because it's never really done much before but I just want to feel better about myself. Biking is rad anyway, so it'll be nice to get out on the trails. I'll be keeping track of my rides on strava and will be updating this blog daily with what happened. Wish me luck!