Mark Stone: My Weight and Health Story, from 2003 til Now

Most of my adult life, I have been very much in control of my weight. Occasionally, and actually quite rarely, it would creep up when I experienced periods of inactivity, however most of the time from the age of 18 up to the age of 50 I've been OK. Most of the credit goes to Bicycling. From 18 or 19 years of age up to my 50th birthday I rode probably 60,000 miles, mainly in the Desert Southwest (Tucson, AZ and El Paso, TX) with some trips up into New Mexico. Additionally, my family and I lived in Denver

for about 4-1/2 years, where I rode all over the Colorado Rockies. I rode over many of the high mountain passes, up and down the canyons, and all over the Denver Greenbelt system of bike paths. My weight stayed around 220 most of the time. At 6'5" 220 is a very good weight.

In September of 2003, the year I turned 50, the entire cycling world was shocked by the death of Ken Kifer, a cycling legend who had traveled across the USA on his bike, advocated for cycling issues, and mentored many, many bicyclists such as myself through his excellent website. He was an internet acquaintance of mine – we shared the occasional email as my fledgling website markstone.org was getting underway and we were discussing linking our sites to each other.

While on a short ride near his home in Alabama, Ken was killed when he was hit head-on by a drunk driver. The driver had been released the same day from a jail sentence he had served for DUI! News of Ken's death spread through the bicycling world like a shockwave.

I was very much affected by the news of his death, and within a few days made the decision to give up bicycling. I thought I was going to be next; I felt that if it happened to Ken, the next cyclist hit and killed by a drunk was going to be me. Filled with fear, I decided to give up cycling. And so I did.

Cyclists eat a lot of food. Just ask my wife lol – we can slam down the calories. Unfortunately, when I stopped bicycling in 2003, I did not back off on eating. Slowly and steadily, weight began to pack on through the years as I continued my cycling calorie consumption without my cycling. Finally, by 2011, I had become an extremely obese person. I was ashamed of pictures of myself. I had to wear overalls all the time because regular clothing would not fit me.

That's me in the background center with the tummy. This was at the Revelation
Band Reunion concert in the Spring of 2011

I had developed Apnea, where I could not sleep more than a couple of minutes at a time before I would stop breathing and wake up in a panic. I had become extremely immobile. It was very, very difficult to climb up stairs. When I told people that I had 60,000 bicycling miles under my belt, they looked at me in disbelief.

During the summer of 2011, when I was at my heaviest, Bonnie and I began attending Rock Church (now known as Mosaic Church) in El Paso. One of the coolest things about this church was that the entire leadership team (pastors, worship leaders, etc.) were very physically active. Dr. Steve Muller, the Worship pastor, was (is) a fanatic cyclist. Dr. Steve began to wake up the old cyclist in me, and, realizing what the previous 7 years of inactivity had done, I began to think about beginning to ride again. I pulled out my old bike and rode it around the block – and barely could do that. But even that first block had an effect on me! It got me thinking about an active lifestyle again. It got me to thinking how I hated the immobility, the Apnea, the hurting back and knees. After so many thousands of miles of

Summer of 2010 at prolly 310 pounds or so . . . BTW Bonnie
has lost a lot of weight too since them days, and she
looks shaaaarp!!

cycling and being healthy, is this what I had become?

I had not been on a scale in a long time, but decided to start an active lifestyle immediately. Starting the last week of July 2011, I committed to walking and/or riding my bike to the bus stop (going car-light) and leaving my car at home. Believe me, it was hard! It was less than a 15 minute bike ride to the bus stop, but it hurt. However, I kept the commitment and continued to ride the bike and use the bus. Finally, on August 30, 2011, I bravely put myself on the scale – I weighed 308 pounds. That 308 figure is what I consider my starting weight. I was so shocked to see a "3" in front of the "08" that I didn't weigh myself again for several months.

But I continued to commute by bicycle, without dieting. As the months passed by, I noticed clothes were fitting a little bit looser; I also noticed that the rides were getting a little easier, and my mobility was increasing. In December 2011, about 6 months after starting commuting, I noticed that the Apnea had disappeared!! I was still too scared to put myself on the scale, though. I continued to

My official Greyhound picture,
taken in December 2011 after
about 25 (?) pounds weight loss

commute. In December, pictures and videos of myself still showed a very heavy, overweight person.

With that in mind, my wife and I agreed to join Weight Watchers in January of 2012. My initial weight on WW was 275 pounds. That is still considered obese by BMI standards, but it meant that I had lost 33 pounds in the 7 months I had been commuting! I bought a new car and stopped commuting on the bike at the end of February of that year. However, I still kept up cycling as much as possible, and even traded up to my current bicycle that summer. Between Weight Watchers and Bicycling, the year 2012 saw another 45 pounds of weight loss when I hit 230 on the 15th of December. Total weight loss at this time was 78 pounds!

Bonnie and I both gave up on Weight Watchers at the beginning of 2013. Weighing portions, scanning labels, and feeling hungry all the time gets on the nerves, I guess. Even after WW though, we continued to moderate diet in addition to exercise.

In the year and a half since we stopped WW, I have slowly and steadily gained back 22 pounds and am currently at 252 (as of 8/1/14) – which reflects a net weight loss of 56 pounds since the summer of 2011 when I

At 230 pounds in December 2012, after
78 pounds lost

started commuting. I feel much better. The back pain, knee and foot pain, are gone. There is no Apnea now. I can get in and out of chairs (and up and down stairs) easily. I can stand while playing guitar in the Church band. (When I started playing in September 2011, I had such a large stomach that I had to sit to play my instrument).

I still have a long way to go, but am packing on bicycling mileage and am eating intelligently. I believe I will hit the goal weight of "somewhere in the 220s" by the end of this year (2014). At 61 years of age, it is critical.

Main thing: I don't have to wear those dam overalls all the time. So there.