All of my life, all I can ever remember hearing is how important exercise is for healthy weight loss. Although I have spent the better part of my life trying to figure out the balance of eating and weight loss I have spent 30+ years failing to figure in exercise. Why? Well, because for one, I hated it and for two, I was not athletic so I sucked at just about everything except bowling. Yes, bowling. But so I finally figure out that exercise is not only a good idea, it's a great part of life when you find something you like doing. Still, I never considered EATING a part of exercising and in my case, exercising means for the most part, riding bikes.
But it is. It's an essential part of not only being healthy while you exercise hard and long, it's also essential to being able to stay in the game until the end. If you ride and ignore eating, eventually, it will catch up with you and you will bonk. If you have never bonked, I don't recommend it. Bonking is when you body reaches a point where all of the glucose and/or fluids stored in your muscles, is depleted. That glucose is fuel your body has ready so that when you move through your day, you can walk up the steps, load and unload laundry, do the yard work you have been putting off or play with your kids or grandkids on the family room floor. Usually, a normal person does not have to perform more than 60 minutes of big muscle work in a normal day. This is why you don't hear of housewives falling over and 'bonking' in their laundry rooms or in the garden. But, when a person exerts his or herself for more than 60 minutes between meals, that glucose is used up.
So, say you have eaten breakfast. You get on your bike for a 35-mile ride. If you are riding at 16 miles an hour, and you are lucky enough to have a great route that doesn't stop at pesky traffic lights every mile or so, you ride for an hour and you still have about an hour left to complete your ride. If you fail to eat anything, chances are sometime in that second hour, you are going to start feeling a little nauseated. You may start sweating and feeling kind of dizzy. When this happened to me the first time, it was about 15 miles into my first 40-mile ride. I thought it was the heat so I kept pushing and before long, I felt like the angel of death was near. I felt like vomiting and my sight kept growing dark. I finally had to stop or risk passing out on my bike. Luckily, I had not even entertained the thought of clipping in. Once I steadied myself to the point that I felt I could continue to remain conscious, I searched for my cell phone and was planning to call someone, ANYONE to come and pick me and my bike up. The ride leader gave me nutrition at that point and asked me what I had eaten that morning. When I answered 'nothing' everyone gasped around me. NOTHING? Are you mad? After a Cliff bar and some watered down Gatorade, I regained my wits, if not my dignity and was able to finish the ride.
Keep nutrition handy for rides or exercise sessions longer than 45 minutes. Protein and healthy carbs are good in the form of peanut butter and whole wheat bread; honey; trail mix; dried fruit and nuts or bananas. Or, if you would rather have something ready-made, there are many commercial bars that are great and compact. Many swear by the slimy, flavored gel energy pouches such as Gu; Power Bar Gel, Hammar Gel or Carb Boom. I was introduced to my first slimy gel when I was having leg cramps during my first Bike MS bike ride. I was told that this was the best way to relieve those cramps. I squeezed the first Power Bar Gel into my mouth and truly, whether it was coincidence or not, within minutes, the cramps subsided and I was able to continue on my way. I have used them on countless occasions since for the same thing and also for quick energy when the rest stop was not a long one. The best advice I have read is to eat something, anything, every hour whether you are hungry or not. Drinking fluids is a given...that's another posting all together.
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