About one year ago I looked a little different than I do now. I rode a little different too. I was about 180 pounds and typically just kind of cruised along in the B races at Bryan Park. When I raced in a tougher Cat 4 race on unfamiliar turf I was usually in the hurt locker the whole time. I rarely did hard group rides because I usually ended up getting dropped and riding home alone. I had been racing for almost 10 years and in that time I did learn HOW to race but never had the fitness to actually put anything I learned into action.

I rode my bike fairly often most of the previous year and raced once a week May through September. This was all well and good but while I was putting time on the bike I was also eating poorly. Sarah (my wife) and I often went out to eat, desserts were an almost daily staple, and I often walked from the shop across the street to the 7-11 to get snacks. Without ever giving it a second thought I had developed some really terrible eating habits. It seemed that the only thing that kept me from getting really fat was the fact that I was very active. In a way bike riding and racing helped but was really just a means to an end to support my desire to eat junk food (especially sweets) without turning me into a total slob.

So this past winter I made a change. Well, actually Sarah made a change and wanted me to change as well to support her. She had also developed the same bad habits and wanted to totally overhaul the way we eat. I’ll admit that I was extremely dubious of this whole proposed change but being a good husband I signed on for trying this “paleo diet” she had been talking about.

What is the paleo diet? Well I’ll save most of the vast details (because I don’t even understand all of it anyway) and explain it like this. Basically sometime in the late 20th century nutritionists starting talking to anthropologists and geneticists and they started really looking into the eating habits of humans since we started wandering around and not just looking at how our diets changed with agriculture and later the industrial revolution. They also started looking in detail at how various foods effect the hormone and chemical levels in our bodies and the results. Long story short their consensus is that the modern western diet had some pretty big flaws and the classic food pyramid was far from ideal.

I won’t go beyond this and defend the paleo diet as a whole or even address whether it’s a fad diet, low carb, or any other buzz word or stereotype. I’ll just tell you what I did and how it affected me.

So anyway after some reading (mostly on Sarah’s part) and a bit of planning we made a significant change to our diets pretty much cold turkey. What we settled on is not truly in line with the paleo diet but it is what works best for us.

I’ll quickly go through what we DO eat as part of our normal diet. We do make some exceptions from time to time but this list is what we eat about 90% of the time.

Stuff we eat LOTS of
Meat. Lean and grass fed beef, chicken, turkey, venison, and some fish.
Eggs. Usually ones from our chickens so grass fed and high in omegas
Veggies. Lots of them especially greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, asparagus, onion and garlic.
Fruit. Not as much as veggies but still a good bit.
TREE nuts.
Oats.
Olive oil.
Flax seed.
Honey.
Water.

Stuff we eat a little of but only in moderation.
Dairy. Pretty much just a bit of cream in our coffee.

Things we AVOID almost completely (except as a treat)
Corn.
White potato.
Sugar.
Peanuts
All legumes (beans).
Pork or any fatty meats.
All oils besides olive
ANYTHING processed.
Fruit juice.
Soda.

So that’s that… moving on.

So sometime back in late January we made this change. The first two weeks were tough. I felt like I was going through withdrawal. I constantly craved sugar and it was a challenge not to go to 7-11 and get a sweet snack. But after a couple weeks these cravings subsided and I started to notice the effects of my diet. All of a sudden I started sleeping better and waking up easier in the morning. My meals seemed to satiate me to a greater degree and I had less cravings for anything. Even my neck, which I have had low level chronic pain and stiffness in most of my adult life, felt a bit better. This sounds cheesy but overall I just felt HEALTHIER. In the first month I dropped 10 pounds without any adverse effects and by this time my relationship with riding was starting to change as well.

All of a sudden I was getting stronger on the bike. Several things were happening at once that seemed to snowball. I was waking up earlier and had more time so I naturally transitioned to riding my bike to work almost every day. On weekend group rides I was able to hang on with guys that would have dropped me. By the end of the 2nd month was able to actively participate in faster training rides rather than just passively sit on the back. I was continuing to drop weight as well. By mid march I was down to 165 pounds which is how much I weighed when I was 18.

By the time the track races started at Southside Speedway I found that I could often dictate the pace of the the B races and hang onto the A races with guys who the previous year were able to royally kick my butt.

By May I was down to about 155 pounds and the weekly crit races at Bryan Park were about to start. With the help of my new found confidence and fitness things all of a sudden clicked. On the first night of racing at Bryan Park I lined up in the B race feeling great. 20 laps later I crossed the line in first taking my first win ever on a road bike. Each week I felt my fitness building and by early June I was down to 150 pounds and able to consistently place top 5 in the B race then turn around and complete the A race by not pushing it too hard and riding conservatively. Not once in the previous 10 years was I able to do this.

In the mean time this changed to my diet had become second nature. I got up early and made breakfast and packed a lunch. Each night for dinner Sarah cooked a very savory and very healthy meal. Once a week we would give ourselves a little treat and got out to eat or sometimes just stop somewhere for a small dessert.

I thought that our change to this healthier approach would end up costing more but we were saving money too. We rarely ate out and started only going to the grocery store once a week with a well planned list.

So then things really picked up. At the end of June came the Working Man’s Classic. This was a 3 day criterium race series on my home turf at Bryan Park. I had been looking forward to this since April and was ready. I had been especially careful with my diet leading up to the races and had been eating lots of beets, venison, dark leafy greens, and staying well hydrated. I knew the course well and talked with Tim extensively about formulating a plan for the races. Each night I showed up rested, hydrated, and confident and managed 1st, 5th, and 2nd place finishes.

These results combined with strong finishes at the Ft Lee crit, Franklin Omnium, and and Residential Ruckus race earned me enough points to get my upgrade to being a category 3 bike racer. I couldn’t have been happier.

All year long I rode to work 4-5 days a week (just 5 miles each way), raced often, and always listened to my body. When I felt good I rode hard, when I was tired I rested and at the end of the season I had accomplished some goals I would not have even dreamed of setting the previous year.

I was 150 pounds and a category 3 racer on the road and track.

I’ll admit that the latter half of last month I had been a little bad… with the holidays upon me I decided to be a little lax with my diet but kept my daily ride to work regimen going. I dialed back a bit on the road rides to give myself some time off but the new year the next stage of my development as a rider started and I’m back on diet and my time on the bike will increase.

Could not be any more excited about racing next year as a cat 3.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be ramping up my training and tightening up my diet after the holidays. I’ll be sure to share some of my favorite simple meals and training rides along the way.