Just a general point I'd like to make. I appreciate the suggestions to change my diet in major ways, but I also know that isn't going to happen - at least not quickly. We all know people who do all kinds of great things - diet, exercise, whatever - to get healthier, but before you know it, they have fallen back to their old ways. That is a reality I'm going to deal with the best I can.
I figure this way, first step is to optimize what I already do. This would mean alterations to when I eat certain things and maybe adjust how much of each thing I eat (like more fruit at a buffet if that is good to do). Or maybe eat eggs more than pancakes (or vice-versa) depending on what I learn.
This way, I still enjoy what I'm doing and may improve in some ways.
Now, since we all know that a lot of these things are affected by psychology, it is quite possible that showing improvement in my biking may lead me to make more changes which I would not do now.
After all, that happened when it came to riding further. From almost the beginning, I road 24-26 miles. Sure, occasionally I pushed further to accomplish a goal. Even did two centuries - one to do it and the other to circle the island (thus two different goals really). But one day a few months ago, I was feeling pretty good after my morning ride, which was already a bit longer than normal, and I headed out again for another good distance and ended up with 59 miles. Since then, most of my rides have been 40 miles or more - mostly more. That sure beats 26 miles!
The key difference? As it turned out, I was able to ride at 15 mph for 11-12 miles without killing myself - just a nice steady cruise - and also keep a decent average (for me) even if going over 20 miles. It just happened that, for me, being able to do those two things removed the block I usually had about riding further.
Confirmation of that is the fact that when I do have a slow ride starting out, I don't want to do much extra riding.
So, one step at a time and we'll see how things develop.
Now, where did I put my french fries? (grin)
Bob