Weight loss and carrot cake

Ask any cyclist, social, or competitive if he is happy with his/her weight. The answer will be an unanimous “I can do dropping a few kg’s”

I contemplated this phenomenon over a slice of carrot cake at my favourite coffee shop late November last year, still blissfully in denial about the 9kg’s I’ve picked up since my wedding day 7 months prior. That night I had bad dreams about the carrot cake wanting to eat me. It struck me then: The carrot cake was busy eating me, and so was the chips in the cupboard and the slab of chocolate I had after my last ride. I needed to do something about my eating habits and fast. Attakwas was less than 2 months away, and in 2010 I had a very hard race, not training nearly enough. I addressed my training early enough. I was doing between 10 and 14 hours a week and the gym programme I was doing with my best friend was proving useful, but if only I could magically drop the 9kg’s and maybe even another 5 for good measure...

Nothing worth getting in life comes easy, so I had to go back to the drawing board to see what worked in the past. A few years ago just before I started mountain biking, I was a hefty 113kg’s. After a year of hard work, eating properly and training hard, I was at 89kg’s. Now I was back at 102kg’s and not feeling too good about it. I couldn’t finish my last bite of carrot cake, as it suddenly made me nauseous.

So what worked last time? In 2006 I joined Weigh Less, and tackled it like I do most things in life: With purpose and almost obsessive attention to detail. It contributed in a big way to my weight loss, but over the last few years, I drifted away from the good eating habits I cultivated at Weigh Less. I was tempted to get out the old booklet and simply try to eat better, but realised quickly that I needed the 3 way support Weigh Less offered me, namely the group leader support, the weekly group support and the eating plan. So I joined again on 3 December, got my eating plan and I was on my way to 88kg’s.

Since 3 December I have lost 7.4 kgs. Its been a slow process, being made more difficult by, mountain biking weekends and races (where you want to eat everything you see afterwards) the Christmas holidays, various work functions and lunches, birthdays and other celebrations in-between, but every week I become more motivated to eat properly and to get to my goal weight. Its amazing what a few kg’s can do for your riding. Its obvious that you’ll be climbing like a mountain goat and that your heart will cope better with the stresses of the sport, but other subtle changes also contribute hugely to better enjoying the sport, like better balance, easier breathing and less stress on knees, hands and your back. Consider riding around with an 7kg backpack for a long ride. I had to do this last week as I did not plan my commute properly and had to pack clothes etc for work the morning. I was glad that the ride was over, and on Friday afternoon on my way to Silvermine gate appreciated being 7.4 kg’s lighter as we peddled along.

The initial challenge was to be at 94.5kg’s by 28 February. I am still on track to reach this goal.