by Lucy
I love cycling to work. If I managed it 5 days a week I would be riding for 7.5 hours. I think I average about 5 hours a week. What I am sure of is that the more I cycle, the more I eat!
Over the last few months I’ve managed to find my perfect cycling workday diet. I am not perfect at sticking to it, but I know that when I do, I feel better.
Breakfast: I have tried eating breakfast before I leave the house, but I can’t do it. My body is not relaxed enough to digest it while cycling. It works better for me to set off early and have breakfast in the office before work (or in the summer I often stop by a bench on my route and eat it in the great outdoors).
My perfect breakfast: One home-made oaty cocoa flapjack, 2 kiwi fruits and a small mango or large banana, all chopped up in a bowl, maybe with some nuts. A few variations have included summer fruits, and fruit salad made by Brian’s son at school!
Mid Morning Snack: A banana or apple and some almonds or walnuts
Lunch: The aim is to bring my own lunch to work every day. In the past I was much more disorganised and would end up eating things like sausage rolls and pasties and chips. I’ve realised now that it’s better for me to spend a bit more and get something healthy like a falafel wrap or soup if I haven’t managed to bring anything, as long as it’s not more than a couple of times a month. When I bring my own lunch to work, it is usually home-made hummus (garlic-free) sandwiches, or last night’s leftovers.
(I would usually have wholemeal bread, this must have been quite a disorganised day!)
After that I have my second flapjack of the day.
Mid-afternoon (pre-cycling home) snack: Banana and walnuts or almonds. I sometimes forget to eat my afternoon snack, and then feel very hungry on the way home!
Great things about these foods:
- They are pretty healthy for the calories they provide
- There is hardly any packaging but things are easy to transport. I carry a LOT of Tupperware around every day!
- Very low cost compared to more processed stuff
(On top of this I sometimes have other treats such as office birthday cakes, a pub lunch and the occasional ice cream in the summertime! But these don’t really help in fuelling my cycle rides…)
More of What Matters 
I too commute daily on my Hawk to work..but You seem to commute far more km than me!. i travel around 10.4 km in a round trip
My cycle speed varies a lot (sometimes I go fast, sometimes I pootle along looking at things) so I tend to count the hours rather than the miles! I think if my journey was over 15 miles a day I’d find it harder to cycle, but I’m under that at the moment, and most weeks I don’t do it every day 🙂