First update of 2010 - about 7 months later

It's the beginning of January 2010, a little over seven months since my heart attack. This week I was finally down a full 70 pounds. But my rate of weight loss has certainly tapered off, probably for a couple of reasons. It's Winter time, and I just seem to get a little bit hungrier in the Winter: Portion size can be difficult to manage. It was the holidays, and while I didn't have any major indulgence, I want to enjoy a few bites of the good stuff.

I have continued to commute on my bicycle faithfully, even during the cold and rain. That was a tough cold spell in early December. Morning commutes were in the low teens and evening commutes were in the twenties. When I arrived at work one morning, my water bottle was literally frozen solid -- it looked like a frozen fountain because the water had expanded as it froze and squirted out the top of the nozzle. I skirted the rain for the most part, but we had enough that I had to replace my chain because it started skipping due to some rusty links -- drives home the meaning of the phrase "a well-oiled chain." My wife Katie has been really helpful to pick me up at the bottom of our hill on most of my evening commutes. I can go up the hill, but about 30% of the time I hit my heartbeat red line, which the doctor has set at 140 beats per minute, and have to stop for a minute or two.

Speaking of my heart, I completed the stress test, which revealed only goodness. The electrocardio physiologist (sounds like a long time in med school!) doesn't need to see me again.

By the way, treadmill stress tests suck -- especially for bicyclists.

I feel like my heart could have gone a lot longer, but my legs just gave out. After putting a dozen electrodes all over my chest and abdomen, they start the treadmill at a reasonable pace and incline. But then every two minutes they increase the speed and incline. My short, little biking legs just weren't made to run up a 12% grade at 6 miles per hour. I'd much rather bike up a hill than run up a hill. Plus the pounding is tough on knees with reconstructed ACLs.

They had a technician, a nurse and a doctor in the room for the test "just in case..." But I got into the 150 beats per minute range, which was their objective -- not very high normally, but fine due to the fact that I'm on medication that lowers my heart rate. It's medicine that I take twice a day at morning and at night. Because I wear a cheapo heart rate monitor when I bicycle, I have noticed that my heart rate on morning commutes is lower (in the 110 range) in the morning than when I commute home in the evening (in the 120 to 130 range), likely because the medication taken in the morning has worn off to a certain extent by the evening commute.

My heart rate monitor is pretty cheap. Often when I pass other people on the Burke-Gilman trail it will give me false readings (either really low or really high) because it's picking up a signal from their heart rate monitor. So I've learned to be patient for a minute or two until their signals pass. One evening I was riding home and kept getting what I thought were false readings over 140 beats per minute. When I got home, I realized that I had forgotten to take my morning medication. Scared me a little, in particular because I hadn't taken the Plavix, which prevents the stents from clotting. That's the only time I've forgotten completely to take my medication.

Our family went skiing in Northern Idaho for Christmas vacation to Schweitzer. (Seemed like a good place to go considering where I went on my church mission over 20 years ago.) It was cold but sunny and beautiful. Had a lot more fun skiing at almost 70 pounds lighter. Since my eight year old son, Joshua, weighs just under 70 pounds, I joke now that I've "lost a Joshua". Skiing is a lot better when I'm not fighting gravity quite as much. But although my conditioning is good due to the bicycling, the muscles used for bicycling are quite different than the muscle used for skiing. I was pretty sore in my quads and calves after the first day. My oldest daughter is a good enough skiier now that following her can beat me up and humble me. We had a lot of fun.

My menu hasn't changed much. Portions continue to be smaller, although I have to admit that I do indulge in salads -- I can eat a LOT of lettuce and not add very many calories. Breakfast is usually Cheerios with a piece of fruit that's in season. I typically eat lunch out or walk over to a local PCC grocery store. They have hot deli selections that usually include roasted vegetables, and their pinto beans (in the hot soups) are also a favorite. Earlier this week I bought a container of fresh salsa, some hummus, and an Anaheim pepper instead of chips to dip. Mmmmm. I have learned what to order in the restaurants. It typically involves changing one of the menu items by asking them to leave something off or put something on the side. The local Greek restaurant is a frequent favorite: It's usually either a Greek salad, hummus sandwich, or hummus appetizer. The Thai restaurant has a good seafood noodle salad with a lime and garlic dressing that's pretty darn good, too. At Quiznos, when I'm in a hurry, I'll order a vegetarian sandwich on whole wheat bread, leave off the cheese and vinaigrette, and add mustard.

As I've watch my Specialized Stump Jumper Comp (early 1990's vintage mountain bike) start to take on rust and components start to wear out, I've wanted to replace it with something a little more "fun" and high-tech. In mid-December, I bought a used Merlin Titanium mountain bike frame off eBay for pennies on the dollar, and decided to make it my new winter project. Titanium doesn't rust. (I informed my wife that this would probably need to be the present she gave me for Christmas. She agreed, so I saved her a little shopping.) Although it's a mountain bike, I'm equipping it with very light-weight components and with road slicks. It will be my new commuting bicycle. So far I've gotten a Shimano XTR 9-speed rear derailleur, new bottom bracket bearings, Race Face carbon fiber cranks, SRAM Attack trigger shifters, Xero 26" paired spoke wheels, Avid titanium brake calipers, Giant Aero carbon fiber seat post, Vittoria Rubino Pro slick tires. Still working on getting carbon fiber forks, a stem, handle bar, seat, rear cassette, front derailleur, and V-brakes. It should be a fun build project, and for $700 to $800 I'll end up with a bicycle that would normally have cost several thousand. (The eBay application on my iPhone has gotten a workout.)

So I guess the question now is "what's next?"

As far as I can tell, I'm pretty much in maintenance mode on the medical front. The cardiologist doesn't need to see me again until late spring. Same with the sleep doctor. I plan to continue losing weight and exercising. Once I've lost about 30 more pounds, I'll conclude the major weight loss push, although I'd like to lose another 20 after that. That would put me at my engagement weight. But I'm not going to get to obsessive about it all. The key is maintaining the total lifestyle change, keeping my cholesterol in check, and keeping my heart and body active. After I put the new bicycle into service, I'm hoping to increase my commuting by doing more round trips. My wife, Katie, should certainly win the Oscar for her performance as best supporting actress.

As each day passes, I'm more in awe of the miracle that I'm alive. My friends all tell me, "You're such an inspiration" or "You're such a hero." Personally, I think the heroic thing to do would have been to make all the changes BEFORE suffering a heart attack. The details of the "coincidences" and "luck" in my miracle are so subtle yet profound. What others call "luck" I call "blessed."