In season fueling, and breaking bad eating habits

[roseyscot]

Now that the weather is nicer, I'm logging more than just commuting miles and my metabolism is noticing. I feel like I'm constantly shoving food in my mouth, but I don't really scrutinize what/when/how I eat which is probably a big part of why I feel a constant hunger. Here is my common food routine

• banana and maybe a yogurt in the morning, before riding 1.5 hours
• maybe a granola bar during the ride
• big bowl of cereal at work after the ride (either cheerios or special k)
• snack on pretzels
• peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a microwave burrito
• more snacking on pretzels or goldfish
• ride home, usually 1-1.5 hours
• dinner (usually chicken or fish or pork and veggies like kale and broccoli and carrots or a pasta and sausage type dish or a quinoa and veggie medley)
• post dinner snacking once the boys are asleep (depends on what's in the house, sometimes cookies, or sugar candies like twizzlers and sour patch kids, or tortilla chips, pretzels, etc)

What are other high mileage (200+ during the week) riders eating to keep themselves satisfied? I'm pretty content with my weight (6'1" 175) and it really never fluctuates more than 5 pounds, so I'm not concerned about too many calories. I'm more interested in eating things that will

• properly fill me up
• help me recover well between rides
• keep me from snacking on pretzels, goldfish, and tortilla chips at 10 at night

[robin3mj]

That's a lot of daily time on the bikes, but the snacking seems to be kinda carb-heavy, with empty calories.
Maybe swap out some of the pretzels and goldfish for an apple or some veg?

I keep carrots in the fridge at work and eat a bag or two per week, instead of trips to the vending machine.

I try not to eat after dinner, but sometimes if there's snacks left over from a weekend or a party, I find my hands in a bag of pretzels. I avoid this by not keeping anything in the house, or just having a glass of milk before bed.

[marley]

Replace the snacks(pretzels) with nuts

[Britishbane]

I'd try to eat more and better in the morning were I you. Its easier for me to eat after an early morning ride rather than before (I'm just not hungry first thing in the morning). Being that you are at work, I'd guess your options are rather limited, but more protein couldn't hurt. Perhaps a drink with some sort of protein powder or what have you?

[Matthew Strongin]

Replace the snacks(pretzels) with nuts

I second this. I still eat pretzels and other savory goodies (I prefer salty to sweet), but try to limit the quantity. Raw almonds and a piece of fruit are my go to snack and do a good job of filling me up with dense, but good calories. It also looks like your meals are light early in the day and heavy later in the day (at least for how I eat). I try for bigger meals early, right before and after rides/workouts, and then taper down to smaller meals later in the day. I find myself less hungry as the day goes on. One last trick that I use to get my savory fix is to mix in some of my favorite snack foods into my healthy meals in small quantities. For example, I eat a pretty huge salad almost every night. I'll throw in a few goldfish crackers as croutons. I get my goldfish fix, but avoid downing them by the handful like I would if I sat on the couch with that giant carton.

[roseyscot]

good stuff already, thanks. i will definitely move to eating more nuts. a few clarifications too.

- i eat at least one huge bowl of cereal (like half a box), so i'm not skimping (quantity wise) on the breakfast.
- goldfish on the salad sounds gross, but i do like things like canned tuna or chicken, so i'll try to do more of that. and, if i chop up the romaine or green leaf in advance, it makes prepping a salad every night more tolerable
- i'll start bringing carrots to work. i like them anyway
- my company supplies a lot of the food i eat while at the office (the cereal, milk, pretzels, pb&j), which is why it is an even harder habit to break. we have nuts though too, so i'll shift to those

[marley]

A fried (use olive oil) egg in the morning with a little cheese can also go a long way to making you feel full. I switched to having an egg before
commuting vs a big bowl of oatmeal w/a scoop of PB or crushed bannana and I can make until 11:00 am before getting hungry again, with oatmeal I was hitting the snacks by 9:30 am. In short mix in some fat/protein to your breakfast.

[Matthew Strongin]

- goldfish on the salad sounds gross, but i do like things like canned tuna or chicken, so i'll try to do more of that. and, if i chop up the romaine or green leaf in advance, it makes prepping a salad every night more tolerable

I thought the same thing when it was suggested to me. Maybe my love of goldfish knows no bounds, but I think it's the greatest advancement in salad technology since the salad spinner. I mix up a chopped head of romaine, some baby spinach, tomatoes, tons of green, red, and yellow peppers, avocado (if they're in season), slivered almonds, and a few other veggies depending on my mood. Add in a protein if I'm not eating something else (canned tuna when lazy, grilled shrimp when not). Toss a small handful of cheddar cheese goldfish and dress it with Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar. It's a big salad that will fill you up with a balance of healthy fats and proteins and plenty of vitamins.

Edit: One other tip I just thought of. I try to never let myself get hungry. I eat on the bike, I eat between meals, I eat small amounts of food constantly. If I can't or don't for some reason and then get hungry, my next meal is always more than I needed of stuff I shouldn't be eating. By avoiding feeling hungry to begin with, I make better choices.

[sonny]

i feel you rosey

my diet is fairly abysmal, but when i manage to lift my head from the trough i try to change my calories around (cuz i'm gonna eat them one way or another) by:

eating more protein (vegetable and animal)
i'll often cook a pot of beans and a big steak that i can eat on through the week

more fibrous grains
tempeh/beans/quinoa/brown rice/farro/millet/random veggies + spice/sauce to dump on top is a common thing resembling a meal for me

more breakfast
more fruit
more eggs
more fat--you can buy some seriously good olive oil at the store these days
good cheese


less chips/pretzels/desserts/cereal/granola

i tend to cheat when i'm on the bike tho
can you say pastry?


i need to lose 3kg tho