Food for Thought
During my 15 years of racing I was "mostly" attentive to what I
ate. However, being young and training in high volumes and intensities it was
easy to cheat my diet. Once I got my proper take of complex carbs and lean meats
along with some fruits and veggies my diet would become a hodge podge of ice
cream, Lucky Charms or burritos. YUMMMM !!!!
Let's face it, that's one of the glories of endurance sports; you can
almost get away with eating ANYTHING you like and not paying too many
consequences.
However, 2.5 years off the bike and 28 pounds later I was feeling the
effects of dietary habits that did not change once I quit riding. Getting back
to the bike was a challenge with all the extra weight.
With a full-time job, 2 children and a wife I could not lose this weight
with the brute force approach of my 20's -- riding long miles.
I realized that the weight battle was going to be won with my head.
I will admit that I still suffer from a lack of willpower-- put a box of
animal crackers and a jar of peanut butter in front of me and you'll see those
animals march down my throat 2 by 2 in a sea of peanut butter goodness.
However, by monitoring my diet I was able to see some big areas where I
could improve upon; places where I could easily cut back some calories.
I've heard many people in business and research recite "if you can't
measure it, you can't manage it". This is true. If you have no clue what is
going in your body, how will you change it?
My first step was keeping up with exactly what I ate. I found many formats
to be too burdensome or difficult to use until I was introduced to WeighIns.com .
This site is a no brainer-- you put in a food and the calories, DONE. No worries
about protein, carbs, trans fat content; just straight calories. Now I know this
seems simplistic, and there are other sites where you can keep up with much more
information, but this site was a great place to start before I graduated on to
more complex systems.
Because I get trapped eating out quite a bit, I also bought the "Eat This, Not That" books. I don't suggest eating
out any more than you have to but this book brings a keen awareness to the
hidden calories you're putting in your body. It's amazing to see the content of
some of the "healthful" foods you're eating.
I'm now happy to say that I'm back to within 5.2 lb of my race weight and
I'm only doing about 75% of the volume of my previous training programs.
Start your program by tracking everything you eat in a week then look for
places for improvement.
Good Luck !!
