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After racing at Elite level in the UK, the US and Italy, when I retired from competition my weight then gradually increased over 20 years, from 78 to 103 kilos. Even when I trained up to 300 km per week, for special tours or sportives, my weight hardly dropped. After various fad diets, I felt lousy and my weight soon crept back. Sounds familiar? Of course it does - no matter how hard and regularly you train, you must understand how your body reacts to different foods at different times. Otherwise the weight just seems to stick. You must respect your metabolism and work with it - not against it. This doesn't need a Ph.D. in Nutrition. Nor deep scientific knowledge. Just discipline. As a serious cyclist, you make a commitment to a disciplined training regime. You value your health and fitness. You want to look and feel like an Elite rider every time you ride your bike. So why not follow the same discipline with controlling your weight? And what a difference climbing hills! It's amazing. Unshed those kilos and you fly up those killer climbs. You recover quicker at the top. You feel so much better that you could go back down and climb that hill again! Seriously. When you lose that weight you will think how ill-disciplined you were, to leave it so long, before taking action to lose it. And it's not about fads like Atkins or G.I. or others. It's about balance, moderation and getting into good habits. Habits so good that you can reward yourself regularly - even to the extent of a bar of chocolate any afternoon! Provided, of course, that you are following the other rules carefully, like no other carbs after 6pm. So we have put together 20 golden rules for an active sports person or cyclist to lose 10 kilos in 5 moths - or about an imperial pound in weight every week. These reflect many different pieces of information, advice and learning, over thirty years of fighting excess weight. The key is to keep to all the rules, all the time. Then you'll feel great. Rarely hungry. And fly up the hills as if they did not exist! So here are the golden rules to lose 10 kilos, without ever having to feel hungry. Read and follow them carefully. Don't break them. 1. Rarely touch alcohol - maximum five units per week and never after 6pm 2. Enjoy a large breakfast based on fresh fruit 3. Eliminate completely all very high saturated fat content foods like cheese and crisps 4. No caffeine after 3pm. 5. When possible, drink a half litre of water every half hour 6. No carbs or fats after 6pm. 7. Maximise green vegetables intake 8. Limit red meat to once per week 9. Maximize fish in your diet, but always grilled or baked - never fried 10. Keep to five fist sizes of food per day, plus good snacks if you need them 11. Never let yourself get so hungry that you consume larger than one fist size 12. If you feel hungry, snack on nuts, salad or raw vegetables like carrots - not fruit as this will just raise your blood sugar too quickly and you'll feel hungry again within an hour 13. When eating, focus on enjoying the nourishment as slowly as possible. Focus on the eating, not another activity or you'll finish too fast and then find it hard to remember enjoying much taste or nourishment 14. Watch overall calorie intake to the prescribed levels 15. Avoid soft drinks with high sugar levels 16. Train or race after high intake of good carbs at least one hour before 17. Eat or drink 500 calories of good carbs and drink 500ml of fruit drinks or water, every hour during longer training rides 18. Sometimes miss supper after evening training 19. Keep a Food Diary and measure your weight loss just once each week, when you get up on Monday mornings 20. Treat yourself often, but stay within daily calorie limits - and don't break any of the rules above. So chocolate is allowed - the more organic and natural the better - watch those 'E-numbers'! Author: Alan D Taylor Alan Taylor competed at Elite levels and won several cycling road and track races in the UK and Italy. He is now a successful international business consultant and one of the founders of Elite Cycling Fitness. You can get much more detail on this article for a limited period in a free report on http://www.elitecyclingfitness.com. Also see Twitter: @CyclingHeroes and vote on our surveys on Facebook: http://goo.gl/TkiEz View Count: 69
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