jk_flip

Cool, I wish he had a book

jk_flip

Thats what I like to hear, thank you

jk_flip

Oh yea, it's a 16 mile round trip to the best secret private swimming hole in Indiana, I have permission to go there anytime I want. So I often try and get my friends to come to this place, it's breath taking. Its frustrating how often they say no because they were out drinking on a Saturday night and have no energy all day Sunday. They don't even know what they're missing. And It's so much more enjoyable to get up early on a Sunday and do a hard long ride in the am, then a short slow ride/swim/rope swing in the afternoon. That's more fun then any single night I've had drinking

Willbird

As far as ideal weight goes, there is some info out on the web considering wrist measurement, that dimension will give you a plus or minus number from the mean value. It adds about ten lbs for me at 5'8". Skeletons of equal height are not identical (spinning off the never seen a fat skeleton bit hehe).

Bill

Willbird

Using Frame Size to Determine Body Weight

That might work :-)....comes up with a different number than the lame old anorexia central BMI charts

eyewannabike

First, congrats on your progress. Nothing better than hearing people take ownership for their actions. It definitely makes you sound serious. Your story reminded me of something I saw on Real Sports on HBO a few years back.

175: October 18, 2011: Synopsis

Tracking it down would be worth your while.

Keep up the great work.

Cycling nutrition and losing weight nutrition are two different things. To lose weight, you probably need to cut out carbs and stick with rides of about an hour twice a day. That will pretty much force your body to burn fat.

jk_flip

Weighed 164.4 this morning. I think from everything I've heard if I just eat a lot but very healthy and ride hard my body will level out to what it should be, who cares about the weight, that's 40 pounds in 3 months, almost too much. Long term and slow. That's what I got out of this, eat for long rides, almost anything works, it's splitting hairs, it's what agrees with me and what I can enjoy. I love the idea of the pancake with Nutella and fruit, a few gels, nuts, seeds, 1 bar. Mixing it up. Now I'm just going to check out that skratch labs book and look into if I even want to do something other then water mixed with whatever knudsen or g2 Gatorade that's cheap. Thanks dudes

jk_flip

Definitely. Thank you. And HBO, it's going to be really good

Homebrew01

Bingo
Better to bring a bit too much water & food with you, than not enough. You'll figure out what works for you, and how much to bring, pretty quickly.

Willbird

There are TWO Feedzone books, one is Portables, the other has other recipes and portables.

I honestly never got past a 2-3 recipes but they were all good, the one is Mushroom Swiss frittata and he has allowed other websites to post it up. I guess it is so good that I never dug into more recipes :-). I have made it with brown and white rice both, it is not a picky recipe really. I always thought Brown Rice was a higher GI carb but I got to reading recently and the consensus seemed to be that white and brown are same GI but brown might be a more "complete carb" with some amino's and such.

Start Your Day with Mushroom and Swiss Frittata | Runner's World


Bill

Gallo

I like nuun tablets for electrolytes they are portable and when I think I need I use them. taste pretty good as well I tend to use them more in summer and less in winter but have them on board for long and hard rides just in case. Besides Cliff bars on long outings a hard boiled egg has been a go to. Cheap portable and real food with a bonus container that you can put tin the back pocket and eat on the fly.

I am trying to lose another 10 pounds as well so I am avoiding sugar and refined foods. Only two weeks into it so cant really say it is or is not working.

The most important thing when riding is to eat before your hungry and drink before your thirsty. If you wait for a bonk water or food your not coming back quick.

Congratulations on your past current and continued recovery.

solo118

OP

Great story, glad for your recovery and new found "addiction"

Best of luck to you, it sounds like you are doing real well thus far.

caloso

As you get into the sport, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find other folks on bikes who are in recovery, pedaling the road to happy destiny.

Dan333SP

OP, this is great. Good work! My brother in law is going through the exact same recovery for the same drug, it's been very painful and stop/start for years now. He doesn't talk about it much with me, but he discovered the gym a year ago and it seems like working out made all the difference for him just like biking has for you. A huge thing for him also seemed to be moving to a new city with a good support network of young people in recovery. He had to get away from the same circles of people that kept dragging him down. I don't know if you've been in Bloomington for a long time or whether the people that led you down that path are still in your life, but I can say that making friends through group rides and racing and cycling in general is a great way to get out of that mold and establish meaningful, healthy relationships with like-minded people that can fuel your new love for the sport.

jk_flip

Just a bit of wisdom from my years with drugs that anyone and everyone should realize and pass along if necessary. Opiate pain killers get you every bit as high and are every bit as hard to come off of/ withdrawal as heroin. And often, due to the "stepping on" or "cutting" of heroin, the oxycodone/dillauded/ fentanyl is stronger then said heroin. The difference between someone with a pill addiction and heroine addiction is nothing, the only difference is its stigma/ societies perception. So, don't **** around with pain killers. They are over prescribed. Advil works fine for stitches/ wisdom teeth/ etc. I cut my thumb 90% off recently and turned the pain killers down and used Advil, it was fine

Adonis72

Amazing story by the OP. I commend you for taking the steps necessary to pull your life back together. I lost a cousin last year due to heroin addiction and it left behind some very hurt loved ones. Keep up the good fight!

JimF22003

You may be interested in the story of David Carr, the well-known NY Times writer, who died recently. He battled crack addition, and wrote movingly about his recovery, part of which included cycling:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...8journalist%29

This is a really good story about one of his tours, that also goes into his background:

Addiction and Cycling | Bicycling

Wanderer

Congrats! Don't give up!

Yeah, it will be hard sometimes!

matchstick

Congrats on the recover and weight loss. Its great to see someone gave you a chance and you're making the most of it.

If you ever want to slow down your ride a little bit, I'd love to go out next time I'm in Bloomington for work. I couldn't do 19mph but I am working on riding when I have time and getting my strength and endurance up every time I ride. Also, I think I need to check out the restaurant you work at next time I'm in town. I don't think I've been to a farm to table in Bloomington yet, but I could be mistaken. Feel free to PM me sometime.

Juan Foote

Congratulations on your accomplishments so far.

Not trying to be 'Debbie Downer', but please be aware that you are likely still getting some "pink cloud" going on. Do yourself a favor and become actively involved in your recovery in other ways as well. Go to some meetings, talk to folks, write a blog...something like that. Write down in a journal how GOOD this is, so that you can look back on it during hard times and give yourself something to hold onto and pull through the rough spot.

RobertL

Well done!

CNC2204

Living life on life terms is a daily commitment to do the right thing [all] the time especially when you don't want to.

I don't want a pat on the back for doing what im spose to anyway.

Not sure why you want to "loose" weight.

If you ride alot and eat well the weight will be what its suppose to.

You are susceptible to cross addiction into other things like sex, shopping, gambling, food, working out ect now that your drug of choice is absent.

Strive for balance [daily] in all things of your life.

You can do it, God will help, don't try to do it alone, ask for help.

Be of service, its [not] about you.

Willbird

The first 7300 days are a gift, after that the real work starts :-).

jk_flip

So in this last week I've noticed I've became way more irritable, kind of roid ragey, small things really frustrate/upset me and I find myself wanting to punch a wall/someone. Is that some sort of testosterone thing happening? Or just something personal I need to work on?

FLvector

No one on this forum can analyze your mood swings to tell you if that's normal or not. Target that extra energy and frustration into your pedals and hard workouts. Otherwise, seek counseling if it continues to be an issue.