I Ate How Many Calories?!
I’ve been very truthful in that my diet is horrible. Have I tried to eat better? Sure but I always have problems with eating too much and eating the wrong stuff. I knew it was a problem but was too lazy to fix it. I made some half-heart attempts but never put anything permanently in place to correct the problem.
This is further mind-boggling because I knew that I needed to be counting, or tracking, my calories in order to solve my weight problems. So why don’t I do it?
Why Don’t We Count Calories?
Is it because we’re lazy? Maybe but I think the biggest problem is because we think it’s too hard. We’ve all seen the books available that show nutritional information for particular foods (calories, fat, carbohydrates, etc.). You have to look up your food, figure out how much you ate, and then write it down in whatever you were tracking it in (legal pad, moleskin, or perhaps excel). Then you had to add up everything and see how you were doing. Now you needed to figure out your balance of carbs, fats, and proteins. Good luck!
It Doesn’t Have To Be Hard
These days there are online tools (both free and paid) that let you do all this. They have big databases of pre-loaded foods with all the nutritional information already entered. All you have to do is figure out how much you consumed and the rest is done for you. Some of these online tools even track goals (weight loss per week, total weight loss, goal weight, etc.) as well as your exercise. They’ve taken all the hard work and made it easy.
I’ve used Fit Day in the past but was never really sold on it. Their database had a lot of food in it but you still had to enter a lot of stuff manually. Maybe that’s why I quit using it. Two days ago I was on Livestrong.com and found The Daily Plate. I looked at it but didn’t sign up. Then I read over on Jason Kearney’s blog, Out Here In The Middle, that he used The Daily Plate. so I headed back over there today to sign up (for free) and see what it was like.
I’ve only experimented with it a little bit but already love it. It pulled up my brand of oatmeal right away so I started putting in the rest of the things I’d eaten for the day. It tells you how many calories you’ve eaten for the day, how many calories you have left to eat based on your goal (for me it’s losing 2 pounds per week), and a nutritional breakdown. It also lets you add how many glasses of water you’ve consumed for the day. It’s got a ton of features I haven’t even explored yet.
Needless to say, I like it a lot. I’m going to give it a go, see how it works, and write a more detailed review later.
You Still Have To Measure
These online tools are great but in order to make them work we still have to measure how much we’re eating and exercising. For those of us cycling we have our trusty cyclocomputers to tell us how far and how fast we’ve ridden. What about food? We guess right? Wrong!
I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to measuring food intake. Some items are easy (1 packet of artificial sweetner has this many calories). What about that big bowl of noodles last night? Or that container of chicken I had for lunch? Or the taco dinner at your favorite taco joint. When left to do our own guesswork we always underestimate. Especially when it comes to food and counting caloric intake!
How can we, I, take our weight loss seriously if we can’t be honest with ourselves on how much we’re eating? The answer is that we can’t. Period.
That’s why I’m buying a food scale today.
Are You Counting Calories?
I’ve included a small poll below to see how many of my readers are counting their calories. Do you do it manually using the old book method or do you use one of the online tools?
Leave us a comment below if you have any good tips or recommendations for counting calories. Or maybe leave me a comment because you love my blog so much.
Vote Now! I guarantee there will be no hanging chads!
Read MoreFeature image courtesy of Alan Cleaver.
Five Ways to Stay Motivated for Cycling
My last several posts have been about self-discipline, losing weight, and new cyclists quitting the sport. You can go a long way towards improvement within those three areas if you apply a little motivation.
What is motivation?
Motivation is a condition that activates or stimulates behavior and gives it direction. It energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior. It can have many forms and is usually based on the desire to achieve an end result – losing weight, riding a century, etc.
Five Ways To Stay Motivated For Cycling
- Set goals. You know what you want (lose 40 pounds or ride a 100 miles) but it’s meaningless unless you set those goals down in stone. Let others know about those goals so there’s some accountability. Here’s a good article about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals.
- Sign up for a ride. Knowing you’ve signed up for, and paid money for, an event is a great motivator to gut it out and keep riding so you’re prepared to ride. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to train. This is what I did last year when I decided it was time to get serious about my weight loss by riding my first century (although bicycle problems kept me from participating).
- Do a fundraiser. There are many opportunities available for cyclists to sign up for and raise money for worthy causes. Some of the bigger ones are Livestrong, MS-150, and Tour de Cure. Knowing your raising money for a worthy cause is great motivation.
- Keep some small clothes in the closet. Still have those jeans you wore in college and want to get back into them? They would make great motivation. Don’t keep them hidden though. Leave’em out so they’re a constant reminder.
- Challenge a friend Friendly rivalries can be great motivators. Whether it’s pounds lost or miles ridden you’ll be pushing each other hard.
What’s your motivation?
I’ve started the list with five. I know there are more and want to hear about them. What worked for you in the past or what are you using for motivation right now?
Read MoreImage courtesy of mikelo (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Got A Great Surprise This Week
Last week @blackbottoms ran a contest on Twitter. After he announced the winners (I wasn’t one) I tweeted, “I suck at these Twitter contests.” Then @weiland proceeded to tell me about the contests he had won on Twitter. I thanked him for rubbing it in. A short while later I got a direct message from @blackbottoms (Matt) letting me know that they had a tshirt for me and to send them an email with my address. Way cool! I exchanged a couple of emails with Matt and he wasn’t sure he had one in my size (we all know I’m girth challenged) but he would see what he could do.
Tour of Utah Leader's Jersey
On Wednesday I received a package from Blackbottoms. I immediately ripped it open and didn’t find a tshirt. I found a yellow leaders jersey from the Tour of Utah! I was totally blown away! How cool is that? I was shocked. Blackbottoms has been the designer of the leaders jersey for the Tour of Utah for a few years now and it looks sweet.
I tried it on and it didn’t fit. I was bummed, but not surprised, because I’m really hard to fit in cycling jerseys. That left me with a dilemma….what to do with the jersey. I came up with a few ideas:
- I could offer it up as a giveaway to my Twitter followers but I didn’t like that idea (I liked it too much).
- Maybe I could go the Fat Cyclist route and auction it off to help pay for a new bike since mine is broken and out of commission. While I think the jersey is awesome I just don’t think I’d get the frenzy that Eldon does because, let’s face it, it’s not a trip to the Tour de France or a $7,000 bicycle. But it’s a Tour of Utah Yellow Jersey!
- What if I gave it away by raising money for LiveStrong? I think that would be a good cause.
- Lastly, what if I just kept it and used it as a goal for the upcoming new year to be able to fit into it by the end of the year? I think that would be a great physical challenge and it wouldn’t be easy. A great motivator.
I’m leaning very heavily towards #4 because I need a physical challenge like that. I’m hoping to be able to get a new bike in the next few weeks (I now I keep saying that but life keeps getting in the way of funds) so that’ll be taken care of.
For Matt at Blackbottoms – thanks. You totally shocked me (which is hard to do) and I sincerely appreciate it.
Read MoreWhy I’ll be a Team Radio Shack Fan
If you’re a cycling fan, and not living under a rock, you’ve probably heard by now that Lance Armstrong’s new cycling team will be Team Radio Shack (@teamradioshack). I for one was very surprised to hear that it was someone other than Oracle or Nike. Now that we know it’s Radio Shack I can honestly say I’m a fan but probably not for the reason you expect.
Sure, Lance is going to be on the team and that’s a great reason to be a fan. Radio Shack will partner with the LAF and LiveStrong in the fight against cancer which is another great reason to be a fan. The real reason I’ll be a fan though is because of my Dad.
My Dad was an electronics genius. He learned the trade at an early age and held several jobs that saw him develop his skills including installing electrical systems on airplanes and performing electronics work on Minuteman Missiles. When I was a kid he had his own business installing satellite tv systems. As a hobby he was a Citizens Band (CB) and Ham Radio expert. He rarely bought new radios but choose instead to either build his own or repair broken ones he would find at flea markets or garage sales.
So, what does my Dad and Team Radio Shack have in common? My Dad was a loyal Radio Shack customer. If he needed parts or tools for a radio or CB he would go to our local Radio Shack store. When Radio Shack would receive returned electronics that were broken, and not covered by warranty, who did they call? My Dad.
Image Courtesy of TeamRadioShack.com
One of the big things going on right now is speculation on who will be on the team. We know Lance will be there but who will be his support cast? I’ve already heard rumors of Cadel Evans on Twitter. Who would you like to see on Team Radio Shack? I bet we see Chris Horner on there. Read More
Cycling for the heart
I’ve been doing some thinking lately about trying to get involved in some type of charity ride to help raise money for a worthy cause. I’m sure you can think of several of these types of rides off the top of your head such as the MS-150 for Multiple Sclerosis, The Tour de Cure for Diabetes and the Livestrong Challenge for cancer research. These are all big events with many rides throughout the country.
If I did one of these rides I would want it to be a ride that supported fund raising for a disease that directly impacted my family. The Tour de Cure would work since I do have members in my family that are diabetic (I’m not). After thinking about it a little more I thought that riding for something related to heart disease might be a little more appropriate since that’s what I lost my dad to six months ago. My families history of heart problems (and me heading down that path) is the main reason I started this blog so it seems a natural cause to ride for. So I set out trying to find a charity ride/event/group that centered on the heart.
I’ve come up with almost nothing. I did some searching on the Internet and sought advice via Twitter with almost no luck. There’s a ride here or there that raises money for heart disease or stroke awareness but I could find nothing on the level of the MS-150 or the Tour de Cure. I was really surprised to find so little on the American Heart Association’s website. They have specific fund raising activities/events but none of them involve cycling even though they list cycling both as an exercise to fight heart disease and to help those recovering from heart surgery. I found that really amazing.
So, my question is, do any of my readers know of any event out there that benefits the American Heart Association, or heart disease in general, and involves cycling?
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