On eating and riding…..

I often joke to my riding buddies that the only reason I ride is so that I can get away with eating anything I want and drinking all the beer that I want. And this is only partly in jest.

I quickly realized after I got into biking a couple of years ago that one side effect was that I was always hungry. And I don’t mean always as in usually. I mean ALWAYS, as in constantly hungry, never not hungry, hungry like I hadn’t eaten in a week type hungry.
And this was actually ok. I was putting in a lot of miles and I could get away with eating whatever was in sight.
The problem with that is that eating is habit forming. I got used to snacking all day, then eating a good sized lunch and dinner and then having a handful of cookies in the evening.
And again, this was fine…..until I cut back on the riding……

This year has been busier. I’ve gotten involved in some community activities, I’ve got projects ongoing at home, work is busy…..whatever the excuse, the reality is my mileage has gone down, but my intake hasn’t. Not good.

Last night, this really hit home.....Recently, I ordered my new favorite jersey from Twin Six – it’s the Fat Cyclist jersey and it’s awesome. The funny thing is that I ordered an XL and after putting it on last night for a ride, I actually took it back off to see if they sent me the wrong size. Um…no...
I’m pretty sure I looked like an overstuffed kielbasa in a jersey that was obviously mis-labeled. There’s no way that an XL is that tight. So, just for grins I pulled out the scale and stepped on…..well obviously that thing is all messed up too, because the numbers that came up were way more than they were at this time last year…..

Today for lunch I think I’ll have lettuce…..