In "Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck, these kids get sick because their steady diet of BEANS AND RICE has been disturbed by scarcity. They're forced to eat other stuff until the winos save the day by stealing 'em a few more 20 lb. sacks of BEANS AND RICE! Yeah!
I've pretty much been on the BEANS AND RICE diet for ten years, and while supplementing it with avocados (when available/affordable - one more reason So.Cal. is awesome!), salsa fresca (tomatoes, onions, chiles and lots of GARLIC), and corn tortillas (always corn tortillas!), I've managed to stay a healthy, strong, 6'0", 150 lbs., in spite of all the beer. Or maybe, thanks to all the beer. Still haven't figured that one out.
Anyway. BEANS. RICE. Totally...

whole foods carries tofutti slices, purple-lable Vegan block, and slice cheese, and also carries Chreese mix, and the various macaroni & chreese.

however, these are not as good as euro cheese substitutes like cheezley, or the gourmet cheese substitutes available at specialty stores - (like the harvest co-op in cambridge, ma)

i don't know why you'd want any kind of substitutes for meat/dairy if you're a vegan.

vegetables are good. tempeh and tofu are good.

that said, people say nutritional yeast is cheesey, but i don't get it. nutritional yeast is great stuff, but it is certainly not cheeselike.

as far as getting your vitamins, too much soymilk (fortified or not) is no good.

anyone read that new michael pollan book? supposed to be great reading. i just saw him speak the other day. smart guy, interesting things to say.

buy local!
(sf riders, the civic center farmers mkt is great. if you haven't been, go)

'nuff said.

evan....you are wise in the ways of good eating....we should share secrets, eat, ride till we're hungry and eat again. Flax seeds eh.....hmm.

i have to point out.. don't listen to messengers..when i was riding 60-80 miles a day i couldnt get enough food in my mouth 4 bagels, 2 pbnj sandwiches, 4 slices of pizza, 2 rice crispie treats and 2 large mochas with whip cream was a normal day before 3 o'clock and i was losing weight..and im only 5-7...if i ate that now everyday id be obese.

the point being.. the more you ride.. the more crap you can stuff in your mouth..

bicycling magazine is a great source for eating info...they arent afraid to tell you a few beers is good for you.. and they claim yogurt is the post ride shiz..peanuts are also goodd for rebuilding

i LOVE to eat, and i hate being hungry. So here's what I do in the summer to stay relatively lean at just under 145lbs. I'm about 5' 7".

I eat. And I eat. Then I eat more.

1. I always eat when I'm hungry. But I try and avoid empty munchee calories. Instead I try to snack on fruit over candy, donuts, jellybeans, or cake. Frozen bananas make awesome summer treats, store them pre-peeled in the freezer in a ziploc bag. You can even dip them in a bit of chocolate. Or smother with spoonfuls of peanutbutter spread. They cost under $.50 each. I tell myself that eating healthy will keep my energy level high for the rest of the day, instead of crash and burn energy obtained from junk food.

2. I snack on other kinds of fruit. If I'm jonesing for a snack I'll try and get a piece of fruit (or several). The fiber in an orange makes me feel "full" - about the equivalent of 3 donuts fullness feelin full. It's the ethanol of snacks! Remember the fad grapefruit diet from the 1980's?

3. I usually eat at least one cliff bar during the day. There are other bars out there - but try and avoid the gross super-sports-energy bars (i.e., powerbars). Cliff bars are pretty tasty and go well with coffee. I imagine I'd be munching on cake or donuts if it wasn't for cliff bars. These are sweetened with organic brown rice syrup. They're $.99/each at trader joes.

4. Ride lots, drink water and coffee. Eat hearty breakfast. For breakfast I often have slow-cook oats but I don't really cook them. I pour the oats in a bowl, add raisins or strawberries, and pour steaming hot water over them then let sit for a few minutes. Or I'll eat them raw with raisins, milk and sugar/honey, or sprinkle a load of them on regular cereal. Nobody ever said you have to cook oats and the slow cook taste 10x better than the 'instant' kind.

5. Dinner is normal. At home it's usually pasta with sauce and fresh herbs (or 'pahst' if you're carmela soprano) or some kind of meat with veggies and rice or couscous, or fajitas with beans. Often it's the most junk-food meal of the day though, i.e., pizza, chinese food, whatever.

Well, now I'm bein a yammermouth. My point is there's no need to go hungry to stay fit. Especially for people like me who end up binging to sate the hunger. Just avoid overly processed sugar based foods.

breakfest - oatmeal, coffee with milk
11 am - kefir (yogurt like drink)
1 - pasta or turkey burger or tuna
2 or 6 pm - 15 miles at park or weights or muay thai + whatever travel on bike is needed, ussually 40 min
3 pm - bagel, yogurt, tea with milk
9 pm - grilled chicken or pasta and glass of wine or campari

5' 6" 135 pounds (and i've been making an effort to gain weight. over the last 2 years i've managed to put on ten whole pounds. i think if i stopped riding and did more weights it would happen, but i love cardio)

Everyone has their own ideas about what is good for you. Here's what I think, in general.

The less processed food is, the better. Meat is good to eat a few times a week, not everyday though. Organic meat is higher quality.

I avoid dairy. I try to eat a lot of fresh vegetables, whole grains, and fruit.

To drink, I usualy have water. Juice I will drink in the morning, sometimes.

My pet peeve is soda, I hate the stuff with a passion. Soda companies are pretty much on par with cigarette manufacturers.

Yeah, everyone has their ideas, but let's talk about something people rarely talk about here: science.

It has been widely known that in order to maximize production of lean muscle mass, you need to consume your numerical weight in grams in protein every day (as in, I consume AT LEAST 155g of protein). According to a somewhat recent Vanderbilt-Duke joint study, in order to maximize protein absorbtion and to minimize muscle canibalization, you should consume your protein (conventional wisdom says no more than 50g at a time, but there's no data to back that up) within 30 minutes of intense physical excercise. Furthermore, in order to maximize glycogen production, you should consume that protein with carbohydrates in a 4:1 ratio. That means you should be having AT LEAST 200g of carbs and around 40-50g of protein after intense rides. You might be able to get away with less protein, because you're not really looking for massive lean muscle gains as a cyclist (unless you're a sprinter). You can get fancier with BCAA's and creatine monohydrate, but it's silly if you don't provide those basic macronutrients. Cytosport makes a good product called "Muscle Milk" that I like a lot post workout/ride. They also make Cytomax, which is a great during-ride drink mix. They make these other supplements with d-ribose and pyruvate which actually increases your lactic acid threshold (i.e. less burn). They have their science down, and they even cite their studies on the label.

Other than that, your best bet is as many simple and complex carbohydrates as you can eat. If you're like anyone who isn't ********, you're probably worried about diabetes from too much sugar. The trick is to look at how sugar exists in nature. It's almost always hand-in-hand with fiber. The amount of fiber you consume with sugar will give you the glycemic index, or glycemic load of a particular food. So long as your glycemic index is low, you can eat as many carbs as you want (because the load on your insulin levels is mitigated).

Do some googling. Look at sites for triatheletes. Drink more water than you think you should, and try to eat fresh more often than not.

I've noticed a significant difference in how I feel since I started making a point of drinking more water.

hmm. ok, cool. but how the f*** do you eat 200 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein in one sitting? any concrete suggestions?

There's also the whole Training and Nutrition bit of the forum if you seek further answers.

(No "WRONG FORUM" snark here, as I've genuinely enjoyed this thread)

I started eating better in the mid 90's when I started bigwave surfing. When your hobby can kill you... you need all the help you can get.

or it's your mustache...

:(

nah fam...you need to diversify that repertoire

mix in fruit and raw veggies...hope those are whole wheat bagels if that's all u eating

this thread has done two things so far:
1. made me realize how crappy my eating habits are
2. convinced me to get a salad for lunch

what do you mean "watch your portions"? I'm honesty curious.

I'm about 6'2" 175 too and I eat as much as I can whenever I can, and eat pretty healthy/well balanced meals when I can...is that bad for me?

this is tRUE!!! (at least I think so)

some of yall eat like birds...
I can't see myself doing that. Then of course, I'm on 'meal-plan' right now (best part of school). When I'm not tho, large portions of rice and blackbean stew (special teia bahiano recipe), peanutbutter and jelly, fruit feasts etc.
I am fortunate to be able to eat a lot, so I take advantage of it. Never eat A piece of fruit or A sandwich for lunch. 'Eating out' only works out when the mexicans or dominicans hook up the portion on some real ish uptown. Broadway! Amsterdam! St. Nicholas!

YES!!!...as yall see, I like this thread...

oh , and...

plenty WATER WATER WATER , but only at least 20 min before and after eating

most of the soy chees has casin. I have tried a casin free soy cheese and it was terrible. i look at it like its probably 1% the dairy vs normal cheese. I have also become more lax in the past year. the things i need to not eat have creapt back in -- cookies, milk chocolate -- but i have cut out soda as my trade off. the deserts were orginally a big motivator to cut dairy. the other was to force myself to eat more veggies, but now that all the fake meat/dairy stuff is easy to get outside whole foods/co-ops/speciality stores its kind of a wash.

in general i dont eat well. my "dieting plan" is to gradually work towards just eating better -- overall diet change vs short term starving, and to try to avoid using my car, biking instead. also trying to cut down my beer intake.

and for ref. veg 6yrs, then vegan 7yrs, back slide past yr and half. im 6' 245lbs and sit in front of a computer all day.

ideally it would be nice to drop about 40lbs but i dont tend to pay that much attention and dont own a scale to check my weight.

Somebody mentioned science above. I am as scientistic as the average american, but there are like 5 foods that have ever not been "scientifically" good for you according to some experts, and since I don't like pork rinds I'm down to 4 already.

On the protein thing, I was vegetarian for a year while doing some pretty serious power-sports type weight training, and trying to hit the 180ish grams of protein a day mark. I'm not trying to be gross, but I think I farted more that year than in the rest of my life combined. Beans + tofu + soy milk + some (limited) regular dairy + egg whites + peanut butter + occasional protein supplements = oh man did it suck to be my roommate. I think my bandmates almost kicked me out from the stench in the practice room. Beano was useless against it, and I tried all kinds of diet adjustments with no luck.

You really don't need that much protein unless you really want to build muscle mass. For most bikers, I would concentrate on your carb mix and eating while riding. This keeps the bonk away, but I also think it's important to not come off of a long ride ravenously hungry, eat like 2000 calories, and then only ride like 10 miles the next day because you did 40 the day before.

i know this is weird, but when i was working, i would often eat ABSOLUTELY NOTHING until quitting time. combination of not wanting to take a break, and for some reason i just didn't get hungry.

i used soysation cheese once. i'm not vegan, but i was given this cheese, so i used it. it was actually really damn good. i almost didn't know it wasn't cheese....

**not a shill.

50 grams protein ain't that hard, I think it's about 2 PBJ sandwiches, or one turkey and swiss. ? Lately I've been drinking a "designer vanilla whey" protein shake after long rides, about 35 grams protein and it tastes pretty good even though it sounds aweful.

Velonews has some very good articles on nutrition http://www.velonews.com/train/. The articles are written by folks with medical background, but comprehensible enough for layperson and not at all dumbed down. Velonews is also a good place to get started on a Google search. What I mean is gather some of the ideas and keywords from Velonews to start your search.

Chris Carmichael is also a good resource. http://www.trainright.com/folders.as...isplay&uid=816

Don Walker's ideas about eating fruit, and the gist of my post was... don't go hungry. (It's not good for your head.) Instead, eat healthier by snacking on fruits, eating whole grain foods, etc. Avoid simple sugars like donuts, soda, etc. What your body needs is nutrtion. Put something in that belly, just don't put junk in.

Could I possibly drop more names of famous bike people in my post?

the best vegan cheese is "follow your heart"

Evan, what the * is seitan? can I manipulate it like I manipulate a chorizo? :p

i was flipping through some sort of biker magazine once when i found an article about what to eat after exercising. one of their suggestions for a quick grab after a ride was a mcdonald's chocolate milkshake. that must have been one of the few times in history where a mcdonald's product was suggested as something to help one stay in shape.

seitan is good. and it's fun to say, since it's pronounced just like the diabolical archnemesis of the judeo-christian deity. you can make satan sandwiches. and they'll be like roast beef sandwiches. with a much cooler name....