What did you eat today?

[Susan Otcenas]

How you do any physical activity on just a banana is beyond me.

They are big bananas. Seriously, though, a banana is ~ 100 calories and digests pretty quickly. So, it's enough to get me through the swim. I figure I probably burn 300 calories in an hour of swimming. I'm usually hungry by the time I'm done, though, so I have to have something else before I can run. Sometimes I have a Gu instead, which is also 100 calories and is less likely to sit in my stomach. If I were going to do a longer run or a more intense run (my runs are very slow/low HR right now), I would do the Gu for sure, supplementing every 30-45 minutes *during* the run with another Gu. On *really* long runs (over 1:30 or so) I have a GU every 30 minutes. That's only 200 calories in per hour, and I burn 660 per hour at my aerobic threshold HR of 143, which is where I'm doing most of my training right now.

Finding the right balance of consuming enough calories to fuel the workouts, without eating *so* much that I either a) get a cramp or b) don't lose any weight, is a challenge. Right now I have "a"pretty well dialed but am struggling with "b". I'm down 7-8 pounds since the beginning of the year, but still have 8 more to go before getting back to my race weight. Mostly because I'm always hungry and sometimes make poor choices instead of good choices!

Speaking of which, I'd best get off the computer and head home to make that chicken breast NOW before I get ravenous. Otherwise, I'll end up deciding it's too much work/takes too much time and go out to eat instead.

[Owlie]

They are big bananas. Seriously, though, a banana is ~ 100 calories and digests pretty quickly. So, it's enough to get me through the swim. I figure I probably burn 300 calories in an hour of swimming. I'm usually hungry by the time I'm done, though, so I have to have something else before I can run. Sometimes I have a Gu instead, which is also 100 calories and is less likely to sit in my stomach. If I were going to do a longer run or a more intense run (my runs are very slow/low HR right now), I would do the Gu for sure, supplementing every 30-45 minutes *during* the run with another Gu. On *really* long runs (over 1:30 or so) I have a GU every 30 minutes. That's only 200 calories in per hour, and I burn 660 per hour at my aerobic threshold HR of 143, which is where I'm doing most of my training right now.

Finding the right balance of consuming enough calories to fuel the workouts, without eating *so* much that I either a) get a cramp or b) don't lose any weight, is a challenge. Right now I have "a"pretty well dialed but am struggling with "b". I'm down 7-8 pounds since the beginning of the year, but still have 8 more to go before getting back to my race weight. Mostly because I'm always hungry and sometimes make poor choices instead of good choices!

Speaking of which, I'd best get off the computer and head home to make that chicken breast NOW before I get ravenous. Otherwise, I'll end up deciding it's too much work/takes too much time and go out to eat instead.

See, I really need protein if I'm going to do working out/riding/whatever. Fruit alone is gone in 5 minutes. So I can't fathom just a banana. A banana and two slices of bacon and a piece of toast (with sufficient time to digest), sure. On the the other hand, I can't eat much early in the morning.

[GLC1968]

. Otherwise, I'll end up deciding it's too much work/takes too much time and go out to eat instead.

Story of my life and EXACTLY the reason I struggle with losing weight!

When we cook at home, I lose. When we don't, I don't. Simple, right? Too bad simple does not equal easy, huh?

Today was a crazy food day as I was off and had about a thousand errands to run.

B: 1 cups of strawberries and half a container of plain greek yogurt

Then nothing until 1 pm when I was starving and broke down and bought Wendy's fries and a diet coke. Then had a coffee from starbucks with half n half in it.

D: sauteed sausage, cabbage and onions - delicious!
S: more fresh strawberries (bought a huge container at Costco to use up!)

[spokewench]

B: 1 piece wg toast 1 egg, coffee oj
L: small helping of au gratin potatoes
S: 2 pieces of cheddar cheese
D: cooked a bunch of beef taco meat (will freeze some); had two tacos, rice, whole pinto beans, 1 beer

[limewave]

Today is 4.5 hours on the bike . . . and things have changed. All of them will be on the trail

B: Eggs and Ezekiel Toast
S: Full bowl of oats w/ PB & Cranberries
L: UltraMeal Shake w/ Banana, Big Salad
S: (Pre-Ride) Power Smoothie--frzn spinach, blueberries, raspberries, Endura, Phytoganix
Ride: Endura, Salted Sweet Potato Chunks, Homemade Luna Bars, Whey protein, Water
PostRide: Veggie Omelette, Cinnamon raisin toast w/ Sunbutter

If I can stomach it today: greek yogurt and granola

If I am able to eat all of this, it's 2000 calories. Since I won't get done with my ride until around 8PM and will be eating dinner at 8:30, I don't want to eat too much before bed and get into a snacking black-hole. I'm hoping to eat dinner, soak in the tub for a few minutes and go to bed. I can eat a big, nourishing breakfast in the morning

[Catrin]

Limewave - have fun, sounds awesome!

[Reesha]

Today is 4.5 hours on the bike . . . and things have changed. All of them will be on the trail

B: Eggs and Ezekiel Toast
S: Full bowl of oats w/ PB & Cranberries
L: UltraMeal Shake w/ Banana, Big Salad
S: (Pre-Ride) Power Smoothie--frzn spinach, blueberries, raspberries, Endura, Phytoganix
Ride: Endura, Salted Sweet Potato Chunks, Homemade Luna Bars, Whey protein, Water
PostRide: Veggie Omelette, Cinnamon raisin toast w/ Sunbutter

If I can stomach it today: greek yogurt and granola

If I am able to eat all of this, it's 2000 calories. Since I won't get done with my ride until around 8PM and will be eating dinner at 8:30, I don't want to eat too much before bed and get into a snacking black-hole. I'm hoping to eat dinner, soak in the tub for a few minutes and go to bed. I can eat a big, nourishing breakfast in the morning

How do you prep the sweet potato chunks for travel?

[limewave]

How do you prep the sweet potato chunks for travel?

Not sure yet, that is my task for this morning. I'm thinking about microwaving the sweet potato and then smashing it with a fork and mixing in salt. Then rolling the potato smush into bite-size balls.

[Reesha]

I just ate a microwaved sweet potato

[Catrin]

Not sure yet, that is my task for this morning. I'm thinking about microwaving the sweet potato and then smashing it with a fork and mixing in salt. Then rolling the potato smush into bite-size balls.

I will be curious to hear how this works for you. I would like to get away a bit from energy bars this year - not entirely but add a few more real food choices on the bike. Also curious to hear how the liquid nutrition works for you as well - I suspect that I may need to do a bit more of this as well to get enough calories on long ride days.