TIME THERE: 29 min.
TIME BACK: 35 min. (went to the bike shop directly rather than home, though it's about the same distance from school)
WEATHER: 14C, cloudy, 14 km/h wind there; 16C, rainy, 35 (gusts up to 50) km/h wind home.
WHAT I WORE: Yoga pants, t-shirt, rain jacket
WHAT I ATE:
Breakfast - banana (eaten at home), protein bar (eaten at the office), coffee (mid-morning)
Lunch - Shaved chicken and cheddar cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, plum, bag of veggies, light Babybel cheese snack
Afternoon snack: a pack of All Bran Bites
Dinner - A veritable smorgasbord of leftovers - a couple bites of pasta, a bit of chili, a couple pieces of whole wheat bread with a bit of margarine on them, a handful of cereal, a piece of light Babybel cheese, and blueberries for dessert
Evening Snack - chicory coffee subsitute with flavoured liquid Coffee Mate
NOTES:
Fuck yeah! I don't believe I've sworn as much as I did on the way home since I was in labour. Here's the thing - I'm kind of tired, kind of hungry, and want to head home so I can start off my long weekend. The problem is, it's shitty outside. It rained on and off all day, and the wind ranged from 20-50 km/h, depending on when you went outside. I met a friend for a lunch-time walk and we encountered a couple gusts that were pretty intense. So I was not looking forward to the ride home.
At first it was ok - very windy, though, and if you've ever tried biking on a windy day you'll know that: (a) it sucks; (b) it feels like you're going uphill when you're not, so God help you if you actually do encounter a hill AND it's windy; and, (c) your body, which is thicker and heavier than the bike, acts as a sail and in strong enough wind it can seriously affect your sense of balance and control. Now, most people cycle fast enough not to really feel too much of (c), but lucky for me I was going just slow enough to allow the wind to catch against my thick, non-aerodynamic body and cause some swerving. Hot diggity, that damn wind sure as hell made me work hard to get my ass home today.
Hence, the swearing. Every hard gust of wind elicited a "fuck!" or "Jeeeezus!". As the ride went on, the wind picked up, and so did the rain - it went from a slight drizzle to a full-on downpour by the end. The combination made a couple cold wet drops of rain land directly in my ear - and I'm not talking outer ear, I'm talking the inside. I don't appreciate Mother Nature giving me wet willies while I'm struggling to get myself home after a long day at work. You hear that, mofo?? NOT APPRECIATED!
I kept having to downshift, downshift, downshift, as the ride continued and the wind picked up. I got increasingly wet and increasingly cold (especially in the hands region). Finally, I got to the bike shop and dropped off my bike to be tuned up over the weekend, only to find that: (a) it would be more expensive than I expected (around $100); (b) it might not even be ready by Tuesday, so I may end up missing a day of commuting, which if you remember from yesterday is something I didn't want to do and was why I waited to bring it in until the weekend; and, (c) I had to walk home, pick up the car, then drive to daycare to pick up my daughter - causing me to walk in the rain for 10-15 min. during the hardest of the downpour, all the while carrying my panniers which kept getting attached to each other and stuck. "Little fuckers," I'd call them while trying to pry them apart, amazed at how securely they became stuck together just by being gently in contact with each other. "Motherfucker!" So I'm walking home, drenched, trying to pull my damn panniers apart, and wondering why the hell I'm doing all this in the first place.
Here's what I'm fantasizing about - going home and surrounding myself with: a large pizza straight from the box, a full box of donuts, a big white sheet cake with 3-inch-thick icing, a couple rows of delectable artisanal chocolates, and a fishbowl margarita - in each hand. And NO cutlery.
Instead, I pick up my daughter and come home, we have some lame leftovers for dinner, and my indulgence for the night is having a bit more Coffee Mate in my chicory drink than usual. I did eat a bit more for dinner than usual, but I am very hungry today, and I suspect that the battling-the-wind ride home today might have helped with that. I feel good about myself for not indulging in any of the crap I was fantasizing about, and I even managed to avoid making 5-minute chocolate cake for dessert (I was very tempted on this one, and even looked up the recipe again and was about to get started, but I did a quick calculation of the calories involved and decided it was entirely and ridiculously not worth it).
Coffee Mate and chicory drink it is. Ultimately, the better choice - but damn it, the ride home was a fuckity-fuck-fucker of a commute, and I sure as hell wanted some damn reward when I got home!
Hi. I think all bicycle commuters share your daily delightfull sufferings. About losing weight and eating: I strongly recommend you taking a look at the Weston Price Foundation and at The Paleo Diet sites. Be happy and forget counting calories. And please stop eating margerine. Use butter. Yes it is way more healthy. Ther is no reason for this current fatty food paranoia. Welcome to eggs (unless you are allergic), avocados, chicken with toasted skinn and etc...Real food.
ReplyDeleteBest regards.
Eduardo.
Thanks for the diet info, Edu! I looked at a couple Paleo sites as per your recommendation, and they look pretty similar to Atkins-style diets I'm more familiar with.
ReplyDeleteHaving had weight problems since childhood and started dieting on and off at the age of 12, I've tried and failed at just about every diet there is out there, including low-carb-high-fat, low-carb-low-fat, and a whole bunch of others. From my own experience - and recent research on the subject backs me up here (e.g., http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/9/859) - it all comes down to finding the right combination of foods that you enjoy eating that manage to supply you with fewer calories than you burn. It's a very simple mathematic equation - burn more calories than you eat - that has nothing to do with what foods make up those calories.
Billions of dollars are made selling all sorts of different diet techniques and secrets that are *guaranteed* to work and are backed up with innumerable testimonials claiming the superiority of one diet over another. In my humble opinion, it's all bullshit, especially considering how much contradictory information is out there and everyone claims to be spewing the ONLY truth.
Here's my take on it: find a way of eating that isn't going to drive you insane while trying to stick to it, ensure you burn more calories than you eat, and make sure you include a healthy dose of flexibility and forgiveness into whatever you do.
In general, I would agree with the Paleo ideal of eating less processed food, and your assertion that butter is better for you than margarine is one I can definitely get behind, but from where I stand that has more to do with ideology (wanting to eat "cleaner", more natural foods) than weight loss. Of course, you're more than welcome to disagree! :)