There seems to be a lack of popular information about women and cycling and their nutrition.
Well, there seems to be a lack of anything about women bikers, to tell the truth.
I've been researching biking for many months now and I've run across a handful of ones that even mention "woman", "lady", "gal", "dudette", or any other descriptor of a female.
Not that there is anything wrong with male bikers (they are some awesome people, I'm sure), but when you're venturing into unknown territory (like I did/am with my biking goals), it's good to know what you can and/or cannot expect.
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| A Summary of G.I. Joe (and Bush?) Battles |
Here is a short summary of who I am, how I fuel up, and what seems to work (or not) for me.
I must tell you, in the case of doing a lot of exercise, always err on the side of caution when taking advice from anyone. When you are considering combining diet and exercise be
very cautious.
Make sure you're getting enough nutrients before you decide you need to cut back.
Bonking is god awful, and you seriously do not want to play with that fire.
From this
article "
You failed to eat and drink enough on your century ride, and now you’re bonking badly and getting dropped."
That being said, here we go:
The Known:
Mathematically:
Distance: 11 miles one way...22 miles/day I bike
Speed: 12-14mph on average
Theoretical calories burned for my age, height, weight, and speed: 800-1000 calories [depending on the day]
Keep in mind that calories burned in one day/per exercise does not include the increased rate of your metabolism at rest. If you bike consistently, you will eventually be burning more calories at rest than you did before you began your exercise.
Based on this information, I can gauge that I need to consume at least 2,200 calories/day [and actually, probably more] to keep my blood sugar from crashing.
I have the added trickery of having a hypoglycemic tendency. What helps me stabilize that is eating fruits, veggies, and protein.
My metabolism's tragic flaw is my insatiable desire for cake. I can eat a great deal of fat, and I like sugar, so cake is the perfect combination of sugar and fat that gives me such an endorphin rush, it makes my opiate receptors light up like a pinball machine.
Which brings me to a point about working out a lot and nutrition:
Sometimes, you've just got to eat the cake.
Not too much cake, but that burning desire you have, you should probably succumb to occasionally to keep from going mad.
At least, I have to.
Something that helps curb the insanely intense urge to go out and eat every pastry that crosses your path is this:
Eat enough other stuff.
If you're more full and actually satisfy yourself while you're eating a meal, you're less likely to go around having salacious thoughts about cookies and muffins.
Which brings me back to my warning: be careful about dieting and exercising.
I've done extreme versions of both. I was medically diagnosed "malnourished" and I under-ate and over-exercised for years.
I hit kind of lazy part of my life where I was so exhausted I could barely get out of bed in the morning, and that prompted me to examine what I wanted:
Did I want to congratulate myself on a meal unfinished, or did I want to be healthy in a self-sustaining way?
With me, I discovered something (pardon me, if this seems egregiously obvious, but it wasn't to me):
Food gives me energy.
Energy gives me movement.
Movement gives me hunger.
Hunger drives me to food.
Food gives me energy.
For years, I lived with this mindset;
Food makes me fat.
Fat makes me a failure.
Failure makes me worthless.
Worthless people don't deserve food because...
Food makes me fat.
Let me just say, I am
so glad I don't live in that headspace anymore. I starved myself so badly, I was so physically weak, although I had the willpower of a demi-god. Just didn't put those forces of willpower to very good use.
But this is my point:
You can diet, and you can exercise, but unless you put these both in balance and give yourself a
healthy amount of both food and activity, your force of willpower will not serve you well.
Once you get in the right mindset (whatever that is for you), you'll be able to focus on your goals better.
Thoughts like, "I'm fat" or "I'm not strong enough" only distract from your goals.
Focus.
Focus.
Focus.
That all being said, this is just my take on it. I just became tired of punishing myself for having normal bodily functions (
e.g. hunger, pride, satiety) like everyone else.
Like most decisions, it was born out of necessity.
I won't discuss it in length here, but just know that starving yourself, over time, leads to a whole host of problems you don't want in your life, my friend.
I don't know if anyone else will ever read this, but I'm writing it down at least as a pep-talk to myself when I'm feeling unmotivated.
The only person in charge of me is me.
I should rule kindly and firmly and make myself a friend to me.
As a professor of mine once said, "You only live in one place your entire life: your mind. Make it a nice place for yourself."
This has been a bit long and rambling.
But, I can't write a list of every food you should eat, or all the calories in something vs. something else because you can eat pretty much anything. You can make a cake relatively healthy, or you can make a carrot stick something sinful.
Whatever you eat, make sure you're putting enough fuel in your symbolic fuel tank to keep you feeling great, whatever you decide to do.
This advice also goes, I feel, for people who have to diet some before they can start exercising.
One does have to eat healthy, but one also must be honest about their own cravings and desires. If one avoids them, or deny them, they will only come back in greater force.
Anyway... I seem to have lost my train of thought on this one.
Rambling done.
