kc9eog

I am looking to redirect my life, totally change my diet around and get into serious shape. I have a new trek 1000 and also a trek 7300 hybrid for around town. I am 6ft 1.5 in tall and about 195 lbs, and want to get into good bicylist shape; I want to go out on a weekend and go 120 miles in a day, visit towns far from here by bike, and stop eating fast food and drinking soda. What are some good resources to look at in book form, and does anyone have advice on this forum? I want to eat what the bikers eat and ride like they ride, and hopefully next summer I could enter a race or something, maybe not to compete but just for the fun of it.

bigskymacadam

I read and watched "Super Size Me" and it gave me some incentive to stop eating fast food and stop drinking soda. It helped that my friend also quit soda. You can do it. Slowly increase your mileage so your body can adapt to the mileage. There's no other way to do it than to ride and eat right.

I also cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated Oils. Doing that narrows down what you can eat for a good diet. Mainly unprocessed foods.

Roody

Whoa tiger. You might be taking it too fast. How much can you ride comfortably right now? Increase it by no more than 5 or 10 per cent a week until you reach your goal.

What's that? You don't have any specific goals? You won't hit the target if you're shooting in the dark. It might be easier if you write down some realistic goals and prioritize them. You can't do all that stuff at the same time. Take everything one step at a time.

Your next step could be to do some research on fitness and nutrition. You can't find the answers to such broad and poorly focused questions on an internet forum.

ericgu

You have some great goals.

I would suggest finding a bookstore and purchasing:

1) The south beach diet
2) Food for fitness

The first will tell you what foods to avoid for your normal eating, but keep in mind that some of the things that you should avoid during normal days are exactly the things you need when you're riding. The second will explain a lot of that, so if you can only buy one, buy the second one.

I would look for a local bike club and see what annual rides they do, and see if you can hook up with some group rides.

I'm 6'2" and 172, and I'm about as light as I want to be. Well, that's not true - I'd like to be lighter so I can keep up with the wispy climbers I ride with, but I'm realistic, and probably don't want to be lighter than around 165.

As far as food, the general rule is that the more it is processed, the worse it is for you.

donnamb 

[QUOTE=bigskymacadamI also cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated Oils. Doing that narrows down what you can eat for a good diet. Mainly unprocessed foods.[/QUOTE]

+1 It's amazing how healthy your diet can become by just cutting out those 2 ingredients.

cyclezen

admirable goals -
"and stop eating fast food and drinking soda" , whether you or anyone finds cycling to become a focus, eliminating the crap that is often labeled <food> is a huge step to being your best at anything and being that way through life. who we are in later life is fully the product of the decades of attention or neglect (a choice) in our younger years.
water - find a way to have water taste excellent to you and you'll take big steps to a healthier way of eating.
find a way to luv fruits and veggies
an apple a day keeps the doctor away - WORD

recent interesting reading - The Paleo Diet for Athletes, Loren Cordain & Joe Friel
eating like a caveman has a bit of a sensational,hollyweird spin to it; but the actual dietetic/nutritional composition seems to have a lot going for it. Some basic concepts for a more balanced performance oriented diet are more sensible than what's been hawked up to now.

whatever you end up doing, this is worth hanging on your wall - "but just for the fun of it" as in "just for the joy of it".

thanks for the stoke