EAF you sound like me with your approach. Keep in mind the benefits are already hitting you. I was discouraged at first by just thinking about how long it would take to get where I wanted to be, but the journey itself has been really rewarding with constant benefits and improvements.
One bit of advice that I’d offer for your workout: find an abdominal machine and hit it every time you go in. Abs recover fast. The one I use looks like a seat with a push bar for doing comfortable sit ups. Don’t over do it with the weight, just get started. You tone up quickly, pulling everything in and you see a major change in your waist. It’s like a shortcut to looking and feeling good about weight loss and it isn’t hard.

Letterboy, I bet you can beat the cholesterol with diet and exercise, but I hear ya on body chemistry just being different fo people. I hear cholesterol can even go up sometimes as you convert fat as it enters your bloodstream. It still works out though. IMO just avoiding anything in a wrapper makes a big difference.
I wonder if the headphones I use would work for you on your rides? They fit close and work by bone conduction instead of going on or in your ears, which works really well. Check out the Aftershokz, they have both wired and wireless.
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