A fork in the road

It was as I was starting up the loathsome hill directly in front of the office for the fifth and final time this afternoon that it hit me: I need to either get serious about riding 30 miles on a bicycle on May 7th or I need to stop wasting everyone's time. Let me explain.

I am 80 pounds from being in the overweight category. While I have been extremely active physically since the beginning of the year, I have not modified my eating at all. In fact, if anything, my eating has gotten worse since I started working out regularly. Little or not vegetables, lots of crappy fried foods, and huge portions far beyond what I need. And I've been telling others (and myself) that I'm not going to restrict what I eat, just add more fruit and vegetables, but that's not true and I know it even as I say it.

The thing is, I really want to see this ride through, and I realized as I cranked my tired legs up that hill again that I might not be able to do that at my current weight. It's bad enough training to ride 30 miles on a bike without having to worry about 80-100 pounds of extra weight coming along for the ride, too. And the food makes me feel like crap, too. Not mentally (although that's true, too) but physically like crap. I'm working out about 300 minutes a week and not just easy workouts but some challenges, too (like that damned hill), and I'm feeding my body crap.

This isn't about looking better or fitting into a smaller size, this is about properly fueling the active lifestyle I'm living as well as making my rides a little easier by having less of me to push up those hills. I'm not talking about counting or cutting calories, but I know how to eat better: more veggies, stop with the fried foods, don't eat until I'm full, and drink more water than soda or tea.

I want to finish my 30 mile ride and then I want to do a 50 mile ride in November. The big question, though, is whether I want it more than I want to continue to soothe myself with food.

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