It's December, the holidays are coming and I'm thinking how am I going to keep from gaining weight over the winter as seems to always be the case for as long as I can remember. Yes I know, it's about exercise and eating right but if it were just that easy it wouldn't be a problem. I know what to do, it's just difficult for me to get my butt in gear to do it. What I need is motivation. I need a challenging cycling goal for 2013 that I feel pressure to train for. It has to be tough otherwise I'll just put it off until it's closer and I need peer pressure to keep me from backing out. I wrote a blog post last night to get my thoughts down, pick my challenge and figure out how to find the peer pressure I need. You could be that peer pressure. Heck, you could join me if you want to. Check is out at Set a Cycling Challenge That’s Difficult and Use It as Motivation. Are you up for a challenge?

I retired in April. All that time to get out and cycle whenever I want---but it hasn't happened. A house and garden that needed too much input and weather that was not conducive to cycling. But since then I have lost 15lbs.

How?

Keeping very active was one thing after a great number of years on the road behind a steering wheel- or in an office in front of a computer screen--And lunches from the local bakers in the various towns I was visiting. Since April- good home healthy cooking-and eating- and that active life has meant that the lbs have have been shed without thinking.

So the idea of exercise and eating right being a problem--Will be a problem if you let it.

Good luck--Or get early retirement. It works.

Cycling goals are great! I set, and usually, make mine.

But I've found I can't out exercise a bad eating practice.

It's not easy, that mind over matter stuff. The eating part is probably more key to the exercize part, at least in the beginning. I used to eat whatever i wanted and ride a lot, thinking i would without a doubt burn more calories than i took in. Well, all that riding made me hungrier, amd my plan didnt work! This December, try writing down everything you eat. Or enter it on one of the workout websites out there. It will make you ponder every cookie and piece of fudge. Workout at the fat burning pace (slow) and try to drink a lot of water and just eat less. Hungry? Try a coffee and a ride and wait til dinner for that food! Wth all that writing you can record your progress on your riding goals. Or, no dinner til you have met your daily goal, on the trainer or the road/trail. Good luck!

I recently saw an interview of Lance.He was talking about weight.He said after a long ride one feels like he earned a right to a large meal but sometimes you must push yourself away from the table and go to bed HUNGRY.I'm game to do something to keep our weight down over the Christmas season.My idea is a biweekly weigh in.To me that means twice a week.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I'm using a smartphone program called Good Habits to track my exercise and eating along with guitar practice. It's easy to use. You just enter your goals and each day check off those you completed. It keeps track of your longest streak of days without a miss and compares it to your current count. I also started using "Lose it" to track weight and food consumption. These two together seem to keep me on track and a tough goal will give me the extra push I need to get in extra workouts and look the other way when there are foods I shouldn't eat. This will probably make some people say "yuck" but I found a replacement for salty snacks which are my weakness. Trader Joe's has Wasabi Roasted Sea Weed for $0.99 which has very low calories and keeps me away from the chips.

I'm with wingsuit, I think exercise just makes us hungry, and the more we exercise, the hungrier we become. Eating healthy foods and limiting food intake are the keys. Of course, exercise confers other important benefits.

If I could just avoid alcohol I'd lose weight. But, I like a beer or two with dinner (mostly when I'm out) and having 3 oz of whiskey or brandy during the evening is a treat. Funny though...during the day I have no desire for any alcohol. The main thing for me is to stay away from eating out. That would reduce the empty calories quickly.

Truth.
I can easily go out and burn off 1500 calories in a couple of hours. That's 4 Sheetz chocolate Glazed ice ring donuts.
Just seems that the math is always against me

Too much talk... I'm not the least bit sympathetic.

Here's how it works. In cycling, you have to sacrifice and suffer to improve. That means doing sprints when you don't feel like it - improves both power and recovery time. Doing hills over and over again to become a stronger climber. Putting in long days just to maintain base fitness.

Then there's the off-the-bike exercise for core and upper body. It's all work - it's what the body needs.

If you're over 50 - this discipline is even more important than it was 30 years ago...


But we whine like babies because we need to eat junk food or drink alcohol regularly. Nonsense.

You're in the supermarket and the "snack" aisle calls out to you. Hum the old 60's tune "walk on by"... and head to the produce aisle for snack foods.

Wife bringing home junk food? Let her know that a new fit sheriff is now in town.

You see a plate of sugar and fat-laden cookies. Try this. WALK PAST IT.

Someone offers you goodies at the company Christmas party. Say "No, thanks." and go get a glass of water.

Think of your gullet as your gas tank - don't pour sugar or fat into it. Eat an apple, for goodness sakes.


Whew...I feel better. You can resume your whining now.

How about start training for Mountains of Misery (May 26th), Blood, Sweat and Gears (June?), and Mountain Mama (Aug?)
Put in some 20,000' months then ramp up to 50,000' month in Feb

you are so right. the eating less part is the hardest, but I have found that after the first few days, appetite control gets far easier.

By this time of our lives we all know what we have to do but the difficulty is having the resolve ( over a long period of time) to HTFU and do it.

I went to a party. They had lots of junk food and alkeyhol. I said I didn't want any. They pulled a gun on me. I had no choice....

^ Rough crowd... Didn't they have a veggie tray at the party? Don't eat the dip, though, as it likely has preservatives or flavor enhancers. [shudders]

I should send you the name of my M.D. with whom I'm in love. She instructed me not only to eat more food but to salt it more as well!

Eat less. Simple!

My experience as well.

Don't use the next several weeks as a justification to eat/drink. T-day for most ppl is Thursday night then it bleeds over to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Now you have parties, working lunchens, relatives over. You will be a lot better off if you do not over eat for the next 6 weeks. Most ppl use their New Year's resolutions as a reason to over eat and drink during this time of the year.

Race. I've found there is no better motivation for both the training and the eating. If you are eating to fuel your training and your racing, it will clean up a lot of bad eating habits. Nobody wants to get dropped at the first sign of a hill, and there is no better way to avoid that than keeping the weight off - plus, it's impossible to perform well when eating junk.

Maybe not, according to Gary Taubes.

I think it is just that, precisely. Excepting something unusual in one's metabolism. My plan is simple: to avoid anything containing processed sugar and shift the balance away from carbohydrates and more to protein. Except for beer, I think I'll drink some beer. I'm pretty certain this will keep the weight down.

Ignoring for the moment all the biochemistry/physiology/endocrinology that is relevant, I have found that constant feedback can be quite helpful. Weigh in on a regular basis; knowing the scale awaits in the morning will give you the strength to do the needed push-aways at the dinner table. Also, set a concrete goal rather than vaguely wanting to weigh less or just not gain too much. That seems to work best for most people and will give you something to celebrate. You can always set a new goal after you reach the first one.


RIP Zig Ziglar

Eat less, Yes.

Simple? No.

Yet another of those things that is simple but not easy. (And actually, if you look at the nitty-gritty molecular details, it's really not even that simple.)