guerillaidiom

Yo, if you're still looking for help, I've been a vegan cyclist for the last 6 years. I've raced, worked as a courier for a handful of years, done a fair share of alleycats, still ride bmx all the time, not to mention using a bike as my only real source of transportation.

If there's any day to day advice, or even long term dietary advice, I'd love to help any way I can.

msincredible

Love Quinoa...you have to rinse it really thoroughly before cooking it.

newsun

Hardest things I have experienced with vegan diet and fitness is getting enough calories in a short amount of time for recovery and long term sustained energy. These are not tied directly to veggie/vegan, as any athelete will burn a good amount of cals over a prolonged period of time and re-upping our stores is tricky. I personally had issue with beans and legumes(they don't mix with my system) so I ended up going to some eggs/fish here and there.

What I would do is is to eat often to keep energy levels up and when doing large amount of activity, I would have 1-3 small meals ready or at least in my head and at home easy to prepare, giving time to digest each a bit before moving on to the next maybe 10 or more min:
1. Fruit/veggies (celery blended in water is good) have also done soy/rice milk-water-celery sometimes adding in a bit of almond/other nut butter and maybe agave/honey for a sort smoothie and lots of water for immediate salt/water/sugar replacement
2. An avocado and other veggie sandwich, veggie sushi roll or veggie rice bowl and
3. A little later when I still needed some food and water a bowl of cereal.
For recovery I do pretty much the same even though I do not follow a vegan diet on all my meals these days, with doing my best to get things like romaine lettuce, carrots, celery as much as possible for the whole salt/water replacement throughout the day. Foods preserved in brine can be good for salt replacement as well, olives, jalepenos, pickles, etc come to mind they are just not complete electrolyte salts, good enough to get the water absorbing back in though, then balance out with the veggies.

Other things I have done with my diet have been:
Simplifying meals so I am as close to mono-eating as I can.
Keeping my order of food like this: fruits/sweets/easily digested 1st, grains/carbs 2nd, beans/meats/proteins/complex 3rd and veggies when ever preferably last to work as a sort of cleaning broom behind everything with their fiber.
I also do my best to eat whole foods and avoid as many processed items as possible. These things have helped me acquire a good feeling about my food on a regular basis.

WadePatton

No mention of The 80/10/10 Diet*?

I'm about 80% there. It's raw vegan-performance optimized. I've had great success dropping weight and getting more powerful on the bike. I started in March.

*Of course it's a lifestyle and not a xx-day program "diet".

Wheel_Motion

I wanted to chime in on this..

Though I am not vegan but I am vegetarian for the last 16 + years and Chef for around 20 years but no longer a chef. I picked up RAW by Juliano with Erika Lenkert cook book. You may want to check it out if you do not already know about it. You will find some very nice recipes and ideas for foods...

https://www.planetraw.com/BooksDVDAudio.html

Enthalpic

That is hilarious! The nutrition forum is an inappropriate place to discuss the religion of veganism.

Thank you.

larryfeltonj

I opened up another thread on veganism and cycling thinking on first glance this one was racing specific, but browsing the thread this morning it looks like this one covers many of the issues I'm interested in. I'm mostly a commuter and distance cyclist, and a vegan.

I live in Atlanta, where we have quite a few resources useful for vegans (Sevananda, Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe, Rainbow Market, the Dekalb Farmers Market, a bunch of small community farmer's markets, and quite a few vegan restaurants and restaurants offering vegan options).

As a cyclist I haven't found a lot of difference in either my pre-riding habits or the food I carry with me for a ride (it's not like I was chowing down on meat before or during a ride even before I became a vegan).

The things that often come up when I'm discussing veganism with non-vegans are protein and calories. The question of calories always surprises me a bit, as I've never had problems getting adequate calories as a vegan (after all, olive oil is highly caloric). As for protein it isn't rocket science figuring out combinations which provide complete protein (beans and whole grain will do, many soy products, and quinoa).

My main problem has been eating when I travel, because veganism requires either preparing food myself, or finding local vegan restaurants, which takes a bit of planning.

larryfeltonj

I'm fond of quinoa also. There are a few recipes for quinoa salad which are both tasty and lend themselves
well to packing for long rides.

msincredible

I travel about 50% (domestic and international). Have you checked out the Happy Cow website? Great resource.

Many times I just end up going to the local supermarket and buying food, though.

veganboyjosh

hi larry, others.

i've been vegan for 16 years, riding one bike or another for longer. i don't do any sort of training or anything, but i do commute 22 miles round trip almost daily. this is the farthest my bike commute has ever been, and the longer i do it, the more interested i become in learning more about training and becoming a better/more efficient cyclist. i have found it to get easier after 6 months, but that's from repetition, and not from any regimented training anything.
i can't offer any advice as far as nutritionally sound pre or post ride food goes, but i can post a link to my gf's awesome food blog, where she posts all kinds of yummy vegan goodness.
she might be here later to post some training or nutrition info. she grew up in a house with a pro cyclist parent, so she'll have much more on topic info to offer, methinks.

edited to fix my horrible linking skillz.

larryfeltonj

Hi, josh. I think you truncated the URL of the blog, but searching I found it at

https://thepalatialpalate.blogspot.com/

larryfeltonj

Yeah, Happy Cow is excellent. I actually discovered a few Atlanta restaurants I didn't know about by browsing the Atlanta section.

veganboyjosh

i did. thanks for catching it. i'll go fix it now.

it's too early to be posting on the internet responsibly...

bikeCarrot

+1

I'm veggie, not vegan but enjoy eating Lara Bars before a long ride. They are made primarily of dates and usually have some sort of nut in them as well. A tastey fuel in my opinion.

WadePatton

Well, since no one appears to have read Dr. Graham's stuff, let me throw a few things out there from what he teaches/lives. Most veg/vegans consume way too much fat-fat from oils, nuts, avocados, and such. Protein is never a problem--with only 10% being necessary. Reducing my fat and animal foods intake I dropped body fat like a rock--scary fast. Vitamins B-12 and D should be watched--and sought from natural sources. Supplementation is NEVER as good as whole food sources. D is best obtained from sunlight.

Carbs from fruit are the bestest thing ever--80/10/10 stands for carb/protein/fat percentages. Works GREAT for me

larryfeltonj

What non-supplement sources are there for B-12 for a vegan?

veganboyjosh

we eat a ton of nutritional yeast, and we just learned that it's a great source of all the b vitamins--including the elusive number 12-- as well as a bunch of other good stuff.

read more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast

WadePatton

Graham talks about B-12 for a few pages and has lots of enlightening info about it.

The best source is organically grown produce from highly composted--non-fertilized (chemically) soils. Produce from the supermarket has none as the soils from which it is produced are "dead".

I expect that I get some from the weeds and other wild growing things that I eat. It is also produced in our own digestive tracts.

frymaster

+1 for "nooch". this stuff is indispensable. recommend red star

thedalyn

Thanks for starting this up again over here, Larry.

We do eat a whole lot of nooch (which might be my most favorite thing ever). If I'm not mistaken, 2 tablespoons cover your nutritional requirements regarding the B's. And, like others, I don't have any qualms about tofu and love quinoa, but I'll also throw wheat gluten into the mix for a tasty high protein option. I make sausages at home that are easy, fast, and better than any store bought variety.

When I was training/riding a lot more a few years ago, I basically subscribed to the whole "Body for Life" diet plan (don't laugh), which I think works well for anyone regardless of diet. It's basically just 5-6 small meals a day: 1 serving of protein, one of carbs. He does suggest trying to work out before you eat, which I managed for a while and I was never in better shape, but I think that depends on how hard your morning workout is. My dad--who Josh mentioned is a competitive cyclist--basically adheres to this eating pattern and is still crazy fast.

One thing I've stopped doing is weight training. Anyone here have a regular routine that is really helping out on the bike. I'm planning on adding in intervals on the trainer this winter (so is Josh, though he doesn't realize it yet), but I know I need to do some strength training and I'd love any advice.

veganboyjosh

not to mention cheaper. holy crap those things are so good.

funny. when i hear "riding a bike in the basement", i think of this.

larryfeltonj

Yeah, I'm a big fan of nooch also. I didn't realize it was a source of b12. The nooch based "cheezy sauce" from Veganomicon has become my favorite gravy-like substance.

msincredible

If I recall correctly, Red Star Nutritional Yeast is a good source of B-12, but there are differences between different brands and some others are not as reliable a source.

Also, if you drink soymilk, the fortified brands always seem to include B-12 and D. Some commercial soymilks are unsupplemented, check the labels.

frymaster

there is a "vegetarian oriented" version of the red star nooch that has a massive dose of b12 in it. i'm not sure why or how the b12 is increased whether it's through fortification or the growing medium or the yeast itself or what.

thedalyn

Has anyone tried any of Brendan Brazier's products: Vega? Personally, I never notice a difference when I'm taking supplements, but I know he has all kinds of stuff including meal replacements and bars. I'd be curious to know if anyone has tried any of it and what they think...

The good, in case you're interested: https://sequelnaturals.com/vega