I have always said that a bad day on the bike is better than a good day in the car. Mostly this pertains to cyclo-commuting in the rain and or at the end of the week when you might be tired, etc.
Today though it took on an entirely different meaning.
On Friday I opted to get some Five Guys take out for us. Now any no sugar, no grain adherent understands that Five Guys burgers sans buns and certain condiments are a go. The french fries though, because of the glycemic index of white potatoes and the peanut oil they are cooked in are not okay.
I know this and yet it did not stop me because I love french fries.
What I realize now is that potatoes might be a gateway to sugar and poor food choices. On Saturday I cooked up and devoured a massive plate of sweet potato waffle fries. While lower on the glycemic scale than white potato, SP is just as bad because of the sugars. And with that I went right off the wagon and had ice cream and capped off the weekend with some pizza last night.
At the time I just said screw it, I have eaten terrible today, one more meal won't matter, which is a complete cop-out. We had plenty of choices that would have allowed for a no sugar no grain meal, including fat head pizza, which is delicious.
By the time bedtime rolled around last night I could see evidence of bloating in my belly & in my feet. Normally my feet look a bit veiny, but if I eat enough garbage they swell up and the veins disappear. Thankfully, because we have 3 kids under 7, I was not feeling sluggish, which is a result of bad eating. I had energy, but noticed that I wasn't wanting to do much of anything.
What I learned this weekend is that I just can't cheat, at least not right now. I need enough time under my belt that maybe I can control it better and eat something not good for me and then stop at that one item, whatever it might be.
Nope that too is utter bullshit. I just can't cheat. Whenever I do, it doesn't stop until I jack the brakes & the proverbial e-brake. I am pretty sure that I what I need to do is live clean 99% of the year and maybe just kick my heels up on my birthday.
In a perfect world I would cheat with one thing and then get back to clean eating. However history tells me that I am not able to do this.
So back to my ride this morning. I rolled out from my driveway at 5:45 and knew right away it would be a slower 12.4 miles to work. August in New England can mean temperatures in the low 50s as was the case this morning. Having scoped out the forecast ahead of time I was dressed appropriately so that wasn't an issue. My legs just weren't wanting to work, yes it had been a week since my last ride, but often I have fresh legs when that occurs.
Also normally I don't notice my full stomach when I roll out this early. Today was different, literally having just finished breakfast a few minutes earlier I could feel my stomach like a leaden weight. And as I type this hours later, it still feels a bit sour. By the time I was 4 miles out that sour stomach started to talk to me.
I was aware I wasn't feeling good, but I was thinking still better than being on the bike because it was low 50s and sunny. Just gorgeous weather. But as I pushed up a short climb my stomach revolted at the effort and I burped. It was not a normal burp, but one of those saying, "hey, if you keep this pressure up, something else is coming up."
Twice that happened and twice I had to back off.
I'm pretty sure that my aforementioned adage about bad days on the bike would have been tossed out the window had I tossed bacon, eggs & avocado all over my r3.
The other disappointing thing about this weekend is that we had been on a streak of no sugar no grains. Now that streak is reset to 0. But it was the longest streak in a while. I'm not perfect and while I know the science and understand why things are bad for me. Just like teens that have all the info on smoking, I still make bad well educated decisions at times.
Back at it though.
No comments:
Post a Comment