Every weight loss plan worth its salt is rooted in a well-planned diet. Unfortunately, I do not have a registered dietitian at my disposal — and I am absolutely enamored by great food — which is going to make my new required choice to eat historically bland food very difficult. But it is something I must do. I will be eating primarily chicken, pork, and talapia with the occasional lean beef and salmon steak. I will get my fiber from broccoli, apples, bananas, black beans, whole wheat bread, green beans, carrots, spinach, brown rice, oatmeal, and other fruits and vegetables as they appeal to me in the supermarket. For recipes I will consult the South Beach Diet Cookbook as that particular fad diet is supposedly recommended for cyclists.

Which brings me to my exercise. My primary catalyst for exercise will be on my Jamis Ventura Race that I purchased on July 27, 2009. I don't know if I need much more motivation, but for good measure I will be participating in the Lance Armstrong Foundation LIVESTRONG Challenge in October. I'm registered to ride the 90-mile course. Between now and then I have over 1800 miles of training rides planned. The many hours on the bike should produce significant weight loss.

I am supplementing my cycling with an eight week training plan for a 5K run. The day before I ride the 90-mile LIVESTRONG Challenge course I'll participate in the 5K fun run. As it is a fun run I don't necessarily have to train to be the best, but the competitor inside me demands that I run the best I can.

I also firmly believe that no exercise regimen is complete without torturous hours in the weight room. I'll look nowhere other than the Fat Loss programs Alwyn Cosgrove introduces in The New Rules of Lifting. His introductory or beginner workouts kicked my ass before, so I have the utmost confidence in his program development skills.

NROL Exercise Book

I will be blogging this entire process complete with diet updates, exercise reports, progress photos, and metric tracking. I have weekly progress photos and weigh-ins planned with almost daily post updates. Because I will want to memorialize this forever, I decided to house the posts and information on a separate blog. Keep track of my journey at http://thejourney.carouth.com.