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Old 03-14-12, 07:23 PM
  #23  
Torrilin
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Madison, WI
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We don't really "watch" our diets. The reason is biking 50-70 miles a week leaves my blood pressure fine to on the low side, and it leaves my partner's in a range where he tries to pass out when he stands up. My caffeine intake is 2-4 pots of tea a day, his is about 24-40 oz of coffee a day, with 40 oz being a huge amount and a big warning sign to check his peak flow for asthma symptoms. If the asthma checks out ok, also check stress levels and the temperature... Cholesterol for both of us is ok.

I put watch in scare quotes because we're car free, and mostly I cook from scratch. Processed food is bloody heavy! Minimally processed stuff is lighter and easier to pack. Bacon, cheese and Gatorade are our main vices for processed stuff, and all are high in salt, but also hard for most people to eat in large doses. Neither one of us is a huge fan of bread, so even tho scratch bread is really tasty, it's hard to justify. That leaves our wheat intake fairly low. Most of our starches are stuff like rice or skin on potatoes (we both would cry a lot if we had to give these up). I don't try to avoid soy just because it's soy, but neither one of us loves tofu enough to cook it at home, and if you're not going out of your way to get soy stuff, home cooking doesn't have it. We both love lentils tho, so we're pretty prone to getting veggie protein.

Ultimately, more miles would be better for us. But that's because more miles is fun .

If we DON'T get our miles in one way or another, we do get obviously unhealthier. And if miles aren't a basically automatic thing, we won't do 'em. So for us, car-free is the solution. Not necessarily practical without building it into your life the way we have. For us even a winter off the bike is still going to involve 10-15 miles a week of walking.
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