your diet, eating during cycling trips

[shootingstar]

Admittedly for all the bike trips I've taken over the years or even part-cycling trips lasting over several weeks, I'm not overly vigilant about what I eat and how much.

I stayed the same weight after 4 weeks in Europe. This included several large buffet breakfasts, some lovely cake slices and coffee breaks during the trip, etc.

I did deliberately scale down some (not all) of my suppers if I had a particularily large breakfast, avoid deep fried food where possible.

During the four weeks, only had about 3 day trips where each trip was around 90 kms. each. Other cycling averaged 15-30 kms. per ride. I skipped some days and did not cycle at all.

What are your eating habits like when cycle touring or vacationing where some days you are cycling for several hrs.?

[KnottedYet]

I eat whatever the heck I want, whenever the heck I want, and enjoy my trip to the fullest; rather than getting my knickers into a twist over my weight.

I haven't a clue what I weighed before and after a trip cycling around in Germany and the Netherlands, and frankly I don't care. There are so many more interesting things to do traveling in another country than fretting over calories-in vs. calories-out. And they make much better stories...

Eat, drink, and be merry!

[Trek420]

before tour: eat well, lots of delicious food. Strive for good quality complex carbs, proteins like beef and fish and lots of fruit and vegies, low fat, but high in flavor, textures, garlic, and chocolate. Hydrate.

on tour: anything and everything I want though fried disagrees with me but if it's in front of me or in reach, I'm eating. Stop at back roads fruit stands, intriguing coffee shops and diners, get churos for the group at the donut shop that appeared like a mirage before a big hill when I felt about to bonk, buy tropical fruit bars from the guy who pedaled his cart out to us at the Mission ... And always more chocolate. Food is travel, part of the memories.

after tour: try to remember I'm not riding 60-80 miles a day for the time being. Get back to "before tour". Have chocolate.

[salsabike]

I eat whatever the heck I want, whenever the heck I want, and enjoy my trip to the fullest; rather than getting my knickers into a twist over my weight.

I haven't a clue what I weighed before and after a trip cycling around in Germany and the Netherlands, and frankly I don't care. There are so many more interesting things to do traveling in another country than fretting over calories-in vs. calories-out. And they make much better stories...

Eat, drink, and be merry!

Love it.

[deeaimond]

I eat all the local specialities!!!

I don't worry abt it too much because naturally I'd stay away from things that might give me gas or want to go to the toilet, because that's just inconvenient. Calorie-wise, I'm burning so much I just eat what I want

By the way shootingstar, how was your trip? did you put up some pictures and such?

[shootingstar]

Uh, yeah for food:

I plan to do a blog post on another type of food dish -- in addition to the Tour du Spargel (White Asparagus) I already posted in cyclewrite blog. Will be mum about this other food dish for now.

Yes, yes, I know, I know lots of people hate asparagus. But I never did. And white asparagus, the quality stuff tastes more delicate than green asparagus.

I pray that dearie's Mac laptop computer which contains um..over 1,000 digital pics is safe as well as dearie himself who is still in Germany for next few days after I returned to Canada and he continued to twirl around by bike in Sweden and back into Denmark. I already know which photos I want featured...but this all requires photo editing to cut down memory hogging.

Right now, can't publish without some photos. So this will have to wait for a few days. For now, under www.thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpress.com , most recent ones are about: cycling in Prague and earlier, a post about ease of intermodal travel that combines train and cycling in Europe. (which is still easier than in North America even though a little planning is helpful).

One odd event, I can't illustrate but abit bizarre. While I was waiting around in train station in Nuremburg, Germany in our stopover to Prague, Czech, I met briefly a German guy I knew vaguely in Vancouver. He and I worked for the same firm for a short while. We were so flabbergasted to see each other in Germany since he was on a work visa in Canada at the time, which was a few years ago. It was one of those strange coincidental moments in life in a different part of the world.

And I will confirm now since I don't have any photos: Every large city in Europe, we went, there were the locals and some tourists gathered in the local town square and in restaurants watching one of the 2010 World Cup Soccer games on a Jumbotron screen or tv screen.

At the Copenhagen cycling conference (Velocity 2010 conference), I went to one of their big dinners where there must have been 1,000+ attendees. Except some folks after appetizers, left to go elsewhere....to watch a FIFA soccer game.

[malkin]

Trek and Knot-- you crack me up!

As for me, I'll eat anything.
(Except chicken, unless I want to spend the next day puking.)

[Crankin]

I pretty much ate anything I wanted on my tour in Spain... riding just 30-45 miles a day, up categorized climbs in 90 degree heat kind of made me not worry about it. I also drank a lot more wine than usual, too. And we probably walked at least ten miles during the 2 weeks, also.
When I came back, I weighed exactly the same as when I left. It's been a little hard to get back into my normal, healthy eating, when I don't ride that way everyday.

[mirliluck]

Shootingstar, good to hear that you are back and your trip was good! Can't wait to hear more about it. I was in Prague when Germany was playing England and they had it on jumbo screen in the main square. So fun to be part of that energy and excitement!

When I am on a cycling trip or just during the warm months in general when I am cycling a ton (and not skiing ), I do agree with the 'eat whatever you want and not worry about it', but I first try to pay attention to protein intake. Long rides in particular are not terribly friendly to muscle mass. I try to focus on protein like eggs and yogurt for breakfast and fish/tofu/whatever for dinner, cottage cheese for snacks, etc. I usually have most of my carbs mid-day and around riding time to keep me fueled. I have really noticed a difference in how strong I feel during rides and how I feel post ride since upping my protein intake. I also prefer fuel with staying power, so I like full-fat dairy products and other 'good fats' like avocado, olive and coconut oils, nuts & nut butters, etc. I've noticed my skin and hair love the good fats too.

[shootingstar]

Here is the link on our cycling experience in Prague:
http://thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpres...ing-in-prague/
(I'm the blogmaster for dearie's company blog.)

Eating Prague was abit of challenge, especially if one wants to focus on trying Czech food since there is less variety of veggie dishes. Czech wine which is not commonly found in British Columbia and Ontario liquor stores, has some good varieties to try.

The problem with a bike trip, especially a long one across multiple countries, is that it is nearly impossible to buy and safely lug around local wines (which often are not sold in North America). Not worth shipping back in advance, since postage cost would exceed cost of wine. So for Germany and Czech Republic, too bad we planned our trip backwards: we should have ended our trip with those countries!

We did lots of walking too. After all, I'm abit of a museum/gallery freak.

Still, in other long, self-supported bike trips, I lost abit of weight since previous trips I did more sustained, longer cycling time on consecutive days. Such previous cycling trips were in North America (which includes Hawaii).

No I didn't have any sports bars, drinks or gels. But then I never have at home, except for the occasional Cliff or Luna-like bar on cycling trips.

If a person cooks or already eats a variety of dishes across several different cuisines that use good cooking techniques, then it might help assess unfamiliar local dishes and their "healthiness" when travelling overseas. For instance, quality gourmet baking in southern Germany is NOT too sweet. The chain bakeries in southern Germany, feature supersized, overly sweet/fattening pasteries vs. the independent bakeries. It is screamingly obvious to the informed consumer. However if a North American tourist is not attuned to fine gourmet European baking, they may not be able to make intelligent food choices in ie. southern Germany. I only know this because of years of tasting dearie's mother's German gourmet baking.

Then when we got to Czech Rep. and Denmark: no I'm sorry their cuisines really aren't not known for fine, diverse desserts. So I could ease off willingly from eating much baked goods from within those traditional cuisines. Except for Glace, a fine cake-cafe in Copenhagen.

I certainly ate more meat during the whole trip than what I normally eat for 4 weeks at home. We did really want to try local cuisine, though we had to rely on some Italian meals since we couldn't find cost-effective Danish restaurants. Copenhagen was expensive, food-wise.

[oz rider]

Interesting subject shootingstar. And glad it sounds like you had a good time. I've been thinking about food (as always, hehe) with my tour coming up. Some of it is remote and while we'll be able to pack lunch, there's no coffee shops for hundreds of kms so I'm thinking of taking some snacks I know work for me. Love asparagus too.