Still Cold Out, but A Dude Must Ride

It was down to 18 F last night with still some icy patches on the ground, so today was not a great day to get out.  But there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it warmed up a bit so I put on 20 articles of clothing and headed out.  Unless this is the first post you’ve read (and if it is, Yay! Welcome!), or if you’ve read the article about me in MLK Day’s Statesman, you know that some ongoing topics of this blog are food, diet, and weight loss.  About six weeks ago, I signed up for a free health coaching session at Natural Grocers, the Boulder-based health food store.  I figured I’d tell you about this useful tool you may not know about.  (NOTE:  This is not a sponsored post, but if anyone from Natural Grocers wants to pay me for it, please get in touch!)

With the difficulty of learning I was anemic after my week-long vegan experiment (aka fail), probably also having something to do with all my Time In The Saddle (sitting and pedaling on my bike, riding a bicycle, or in Spanish, montando una bici), it made sense to return.  I recently ran into the coach, Matt Dorsey, MAcOM, LAc (he wasn’t hurt!) at Casa de Luz, so that was a sign as well.

Gregarious, energetic, and very knowledgeable about nutrition since he has studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, herbs, etc.), Matt sat down to go over how I’ve been doing.  I won’t go into all his advice but needless to say, there is always room for improvement and it’s good to have another perspective.   Some of the tips Matt gave me were not new, some were, and most were just specific to me.  If you live near one of their stores, you may want to schedule your own session.  You may learn some stuff.  For upcoming events at the Austin Guadalupe store, check out this link.

Of course the store exists to promote and sell their products, many of which are vitamins.  The chain began as Vitamin Cottage but have a large selection of healthy foods, including mostly organics.  I have to shop the sales but you either pay now, or pay later at the doctor.  However, the store has what’s called an Every Day Affordable Price (EDAP) on many of their supplements, so I’ve found some things to be much cheaper than at other places.  My mama told me you gotta shop around.

Since Most Diets Are Not Perfect, Supplements Can Help

Ideally we’d all eat super clean and be free from all disease and get all our nutrients from food.  But we live in a polluted world (another reason it’s great to bicycle as much as possible), with depleted soil, contaminated oceans, plastic containers and the smell of donuts, pizza, bar-b-q, cheeseburgers, french fries, fried chicken and more.  A Dude must be getting hungry.

What we eat is complex.  Food choices are based on upbringing, habit, socioeconomic status, cravings, addictions, availability, and much more.  So when it comes to weight loss, I’m just trying to “be a little less of a fathlete” (as I titled a recent post), “perfect is the enemy of good.”  I take a number of things to help A Dude’s system, which is not what it used to be, but if I can bike 10,000 miles in two years, I’m not doing all that badly, either.

• How have you changed what you eat to improve your performance, either on the bike, running, gym, etc.? 

• What supplements have you found that help with your energy, weight loss, fitness, or other goals?

• Do you have any health hacks for A Dude and fellow readers?

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Thanks for reading!  –A Dude Abikes

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