Introduction
On this website, I intend to chronicle my journey towards enhancing both my health and cycling endeavors. Despite being 67 years old, I firmly believe that my journey is far from over, and there is ample opportunity to achieve new goals. My conviction lies in the notion that by modifying my diet, cultivating a positive mental attitude, and refining my training routine, I can not only extend my lifespan but also enjoy a higher quality of life in my later years. Thus, the journey commences now.
So, where to begin? I guess with my name: Dan Piper, and this website, PiperSpinning, covering subjects ranging from cycling to health to vacations centered around cycling. Let me provide a little history—my history. I have always been involved in some kind of sporting or athletic activity throughout my years. It started with baseball in my youth, where I was a pitcher. Then, I moved on to running in my college days. After that, it was back to baseball for a while before returning to running, where I completed the Western States 100-miler three times.
Following that, I slowed down on running due to knee issues and took up cycling, which I’ve been doing for the last 15 years. In these years, I’ve participated in about seven 24-hour cycling events, with the highest mileage being 342 miles in 24 hours. You might think I must be totally skinny, healthy, and never face any weight problems, but that would be wrong. Today, at 67 years old, I know what you may be thinking… that it’s time to slow down. However, I just don’t want to. So, I need to solve a problem: my constant battle with being overweight (sometimes obese).
One of my goals for PiperSpinning is to document my struggles and successes in finding my healthy weight and diet. And by diet, I don’t mean constantly losing weight but maintaining a diet that keeps me at a healthy weight and out of the doctor’s office.
I could go back to the time I decided to train for the Western States 100-miler back when I was in my 40s. I weighed 295 lbs, and in two years, I dropped my weight down to 180 lbs. I completed WS100 in 23 hours and 30 minutes—not bad if I do say so myself. But the problem was that in the winter, I always gained weight back, even though I continued to run. In my ultra-running years, I would gain back to 210-220 lbs—the yo-yo effect that everyone talks about. And I did always watch my diet in those days, staying on my low-fat diet.
Anyway, enough of that. Let’s fast forward to the year 2022. I am 66 years old, cycling a lot, and have an active job in park maintenance, which on its own keeps me active. This year, I cycled 7,700 miles. I started off the year in January weighing 210 lbs, and I finished the year weighing 238 lbs, gaining a whopping 28 pounds. My diet was nothing special, just the standard American diet (SAD). I know what you are thinking, “Dan, you are 66 years old, that is what is supposed to happen—older, slower, fatter,” right? I have decided that is not acceptable! I don’t think this has to be, and who made this rule? I think that attitude makes you old. I am looking for something better; I want to continue to grow (in attitude, not in size) and improve myself and just see what I can do. So begins the journey at the young age of 66 at the end of 2022; I took on the challenge of improving myself.
The first thing I tried was Intermittent Fasting (or Time-Restricted Eating), where I would use my sleep time combined with skipping breakfast and go 16 to 18 hours without eating any food. I picked up on this from “The Vegan Cyclist” on YouTube. Yeah, I watch a lot of YouTube. Anyway, I started to lose weight and feel better at the same time. But the weight loss would stop; I did not gain it back, but I was not dropping any more weight. It was then I started following these Functional Health doctors on YouTube, and they were claiming that sugar was the main culprit. So I cut out sugar completely and processed foods (breads, pastas, etc.). Also, no more fast foods like McDonald’s.
So, for the 2023 year, I started out at 2038 lbs, cycled 7,100 miles, and finished the year at a weight of 172 lbs, losing 66 pounds in 12 months. But it was a rough year; I had hernia surgery, a cycling crash with a fallen tree, and somehow I got a bleeding ulcer. Diet-related? Not sure, but I am going to find out. I spent $500 of my own money to have a complete blood panel that tested 140 health markers, and I will go over the details in the next blog. Despite the problems, I feel really pretty good, and I am at the lightest weight in years.
So, I invite you to follow along and see if I reach my goals. I am 67 years old, and I still want to improve, and maybe someday I will reach 400 miles in 24 hours. Until next time, Dan.
