I can only imagine this is what vampires feel like.
By far the worst, worst thing since taking on this cycling commute has been the whole issue of eating. I am constantly hungry. Rarely satisfied. Always thinking about food: A constant niggling at the back of my mind demanding satisfaction. And realistically it just can’t have what it wants. Not all the time.
It is not that I fear “losing control”, relenting and jeopardising a finally balanced diet. No, that’s not the issue at all: I’m not an athlete, nor in training. I don’t particularly care about my physique (beyond wishing my thighs were bigger to help with the hills and headwinds). I know I can quickly burn off anything I put on. It’s rather that I know I can’t just eat everything in the house because that food has to feed my family as well. And me the next day.
I live off porridge and bananas because it’s cheap, plentiful, energy filled food: I would happily never eat porridge or a banana in my life again.
It’s annoying for me always feeling so hungry and incredibly annoying for my wife who makes me large meals only for me to eat it in five seconds and immediately be looking for something else to eat. To be fair, even I didn’t really anticipate quite how much food I’d need want to eat; the super-size portions on Supersize vs Superskinny just look like an ok amount of food to me - I’ve jokingly considered applying as “superskinny” so I get to enjoy the large meals.
I’ve found it takes me about three to four days of no cycling to get my body to the point where it isn’t constantly craving food. So unfortunately weekends off cycling just don’t quite make the cut.
All that said though, I’ve now been doing this cycle commute for about thirty-two months and I’ve not died from malnutrition nor shrivelled away (too much). So I must actually be getting enough food. It’s just that my body craves more. So perhaps the biggest worry is that one day I’ll stop cycling quite so much, but by then I’ll be so accustomed to the volume of food I eat that I’ll balloon in size. Best keep pedalling.