#scott cutshall

[mostlymonk]

Stuffy Turkey

Scott Cutshall’s Phrasology Quartet 2-Up/2-Down

John Gross – saxophone Tim Willcox – saxophone Tim DuRoche – drums Scott Cutshall – drums

[mostlymonk]

Boo Boo’s Birthday

  Scott Cutshall’s Phrasology

  John Gross – tenor sax Tim Willcox – tenor sax Tim DuRoche – drums Scott Cutshall – drums

[innovationforendurance]

How Cycling Saved Scott Cutshall's Life

The health benefits of cycling are well-known. Those who regularly partake in two-wheeled exercise increase strength and muscle tone, improve stamina, increase cardiovascular fitness and reduce stress levels. But for some riders, cycling is literally a life-saver.

That’s certainly the case for Scott Cutshall, a stay-at-home dad originally from New Jersey, who in 2002 was told point-blank by his doctor that unless he underwent drastic stomach-reducing surgery, he would be dead in six months. Cutshall (pictured above) was grossly overweight, at one point tipping the scales in excess of 500 pounds. But despite the dire warnings, Cutshall was leery about undergoing the surgical procedure. He asked his doctors whether it was possible to lose the weight on his own; they told him that was very unlikely.

A decade later, Cutshall (or what’s left of him) is both an inspiration and revelation to anyone battling obesity. He proved the doctors wrong, shedding more than 300 pounds on his own, in part by riding a bike every day. Things started slow at first. His maiden ride covered less than 2 miles. But Cutshall kept at it. During his first year of dedicated cycling, he logged nearly 2,000 miles and lost 160 pounds. By 2008, he had lost more than 300 pounds, and weighed 185.

“There’s no doubt that the bicycle changed my life,” said Cutshall, who now lives with his wife and daughter in the cycling hotbed of Portland, Oregon, where he continues to ride every day. “I think one of the greatest mistakes our society makes is seeing the bike as a toy that's left behind at the end of adolescence when you get your first driver's license. It’s that and so much more. It’s a tool. It’s art. It’s a racing machine. It’s transportation. And it saved my life.”

Of course this amazing transformation didn’t come without a massive amount of determination and hard work. In 2009, Cutshall rode nearly 20,000 miles, which works out to nearly 55 miles a day. It’s for that reason that he’s shied away from excessive publicity, turning down appearance and writing opportunities with major media outlets that wanted him to espouse generic diet tips and other quick-fix weight-loss solutions. “Before I got myself turned around, all I ever heard was that the path to better living came through technology or pharmaceuticals or surgery or some BS diet,” recalls Cutshall. “The reality is that if you want to change your life, don’t believe in me or some book or some doctor who tells you the only solution to your problems is to re-route your internal plumbing. Believe in yourself.

“People who are overweight hold on to false hope. They pin things on other people to save them or make life change for them. But that doesn’t work. You have to realize that it’s on you to figure out your problems. At least that’s my opinion and it worked for me. It was a long and painful process, but when I did that, when I believed in myself, things got better and I got a second chance.”

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photos Courtesy of Scott Cutshall