AustinBike

Probably true. I am not allergic to deep dish pizza but I have several friends who aren't native to Chicago and they are only able to eat one piece before they start feeling the effects.

I am no scientist, but if you are buying a mask, you need to make sure that the mask can filter cedar pollen which is ~20-30 microns. The first masks that I picked up were not filtering them because the "holes" were like 50 microns (also called micrometers). I ended up with disposable surgical masks. They're ugly and I look like Michael Jackson but I am still on the bike. I can toss a few in a ziplock bag in my pack, easy access if things go south on a ride. Do your research first because many of the masks out there are probably catching all of the pollen as you ride and then as you breathe it is pulling it through right to your lungs.

My father in law was just in the hospital for blood clots. He's easily twice my weight, very sedentary and also has gout. He was getting orange juice every day. Here's a snapshot of "drinks other than water for diabetics": https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/daily-control-19/diet/slideshow-diabetes-friendly-drinks I could go on and on regarding all of the bad diabetes advice that that ADA has given out over the years (it's starting to turn.) Part of the reason that I said you need to do research is because too many people listen to people on the internet and take that blindly. I was not implying that you have not done your research, merely pointing out that just relying on a doctor's advice or just relying on internet postings will not get you the whole story. My doctor was trying to help me with high cholesterol and all of her advice was around eating less red meat. When I told her I did not eat much, she was pretty much out of nutritional advice. It turns out the culprit for me (and many others) was sugar. Sugar is really bad for cholesterol, which is a relatively new understanding. Most doctors that got their degrees in the 80's and 90's don't understand this link. I had to literally show her the AMA articles about that. So you can't just take their word for it. When you said that you were eating ~45 carbs per meal and 10 carbs between meals, my math was ~145 per day (45+10+45+10+45), which is significantly higher than the 90 that you are eating.

We stayed at this one last time: https://www.vrbo.com/7844644ha?adultsCount=8 This was RIGHT on the trail, Red Barn technically was against our back yard. Great place.

Added an 3-paddle LED light in the work area of my garage. Some before and after pics. Bright as shit now, the harsher light will make it easier for the old man eyes to see what I am doing. $25 on amazon. The first two pics are the "after", the other two are the "before."

I will have a table and some sausage, Lucie is bringing a grill.

Working with a doctor is the right call. However, you need to also open your eye to some of the alternatives as well. What I have heard from doctors is that they receive a few hours of instruction on diet in their education, and that happened years ago. Conventional wisdom is changing and sadly most of the medical field is not up to speed on those changes. For instance the diabetes association, until last year, was still talking about an obscenely high number of carbs in the diet to help minimize diabetes. Just look at what they serve diabetics in the hospital: starches, bread, orange juice, etc. It's almost criminal. Do some research on your own in terms of carbs and diabetes and you'll see that the guidelines are changing. Discuss these with your endocrinologist and come up with a plan that is right for you. But don't just assume that your endocrinologist is up to speed on all of the latest medical findings, they may be working off of the 2-3 hours of nutrition that they learned in med school back in the 1980's. (For reference, in the 1980's and 90's we had the introduction of "low fat" foods that were stuffed with carbs; look at any charts of diabetes and obesity for the US and you'll see that was the beginning of the explosion.)

You don't need to kick food, you need to kick bad food. Bad food is specifically made to be addictive.

Yes, it does get worse with higher counts. Basically those counts are "particles in the air" so the higher the count, the worse it should be for you. In simple terms (not a doctor) your body is pretty immune to cedar and it takes time for most to develop symptoms of cedar fever. If you just moved here a few years ago the cedar has probably not had as much impact and it becomes all about thresholds. But if you have been here for a long time you get worn down to a nub by cedar. My first 18 or so years, never had an issue. The last 5 years have been hell. But I would not be surprised to see that there are multiple things giving you problems. Yesterday's cedar number was off the charts, the second highest in 25 years. BUT it really comes down to exposure.

Just saw this on fasting, great advice:

IF is very powerful. If I needed to lose weight I would be all over that. We eat dinner early and I eat a late breakfast (2 meals a day most of the time) so I typically have a 16-hour fast every day. My wife has done 2 and 3 day fasts. Also try a “fat fast” - basically only eat bacon, avocados and macadamia nuts. The fat will hold you and keep you from getting hungry. Basically carbs make you hungry. If you are hungry between meals you need to eat more in your meals, primarily fat and protein, in order to be satiated.

Lest we forget, there will be beautiful weather tomorrow

I do ~50g of carbs a day, almost all with dinner and never have anything between meals. Something for you to try is to not have anything between meals. Especially carbs. Basically that is what is probably keeping your glucose up. If you keep feeding it carbs throughout the day it never gets to calm down. Also try some berberine. It drops my glucose a few points. Some will say I am just gaming the system, but, hey, I AM the system. Lower glucose is better, no matter how (generally) you achieve that.

Beats me. I would assume that it is sodium based on what I ate. If you eat 3 meals a day in restaurants you are eating a lot of processed food (i.e. sodium) versus eating the home cooked food where my wife does a better job of managing the sodium and everything is fresh. I don't live in the keto world, I am low carb, high fat, which is close, but does not rely on being in some particular state. I call it lazy man's keto.

Annnnd then today I pressed my luck on an "unmentionable trail." I was a snot machine and my eyes are swollen. Get me to late February and everything will be fine.

Did 16 miles out on the greenbelt yesterday with my combo of cedar serum and generic Claritin. Worked great, significantly less mucus than a typical ride. YMMV, everyone's body is different.

Probably a safer loss pattern; losing it quick is not really recommended. If you put it on slowly you are probably best to take it off slowly in order to let your body adjust.

Here's a snapshot of December through today. Notice that there were 3 times that I gained more than 3 pounds in a single day, around the start of the month when I had 2 parties in a weekend, xmas itself and then Chicago (this one was 6 pounds in 2 days.) Every time I went up quickly in weight, I was riding the next day and watching what I ate - immediately dropped the weight. Most of this is because it was water weight. Now think about your friends that aren't as active and don't eat well. They pick up 3 pounds, complain like it is the end of the world, and it takes them 3-4 weeks to work it off because they are sedentary or not watching what they ate. When I bump up, I swear off beer and carbs completely and that will magically drop off the weight (provided I am moving enough). I move back to moderation once I am back down the my range. After having lived at the 200-210 range for years, I realize how lucky I am now and the discipline keeps me going. But I also have the luxury of being able to bike every day and not everyone has that. Exercise alone will not solve the problem but it is very additive to the solution. If you really want to lose weight, don't spend a lot of money on fancy stuff. Go to Walmart and get a $20 blood glucose meter and start tracking your morning glucose. This will do more for helping you lose weight than all the CrossFit memberships. Added bonus: it helps with high cholesterol and Alzheimer's prevention as well.

I dropped 50 as well, about the same proportion. I don't have saggy skin so I must have gotten lucky. My issue is that my temples appear sunken because my of the 50 pounds I lost appears to have been in my head. I kinda have a skeleton look now and you can't hide that with clothes so it sucks worse than saggy skin. But it is better than hauling two extra bikes up the hill with me on every climb.

I also bought some surgical masks and toss a few in my camelbak in a ziplock bag for those days when you know the numbers are gonna be off the charts. I's rather be Michael Jackson (with 2 gloves on) than be sitting on the couch. The only down side to the masks is that they will make my glasses fog. Taking off the glasses exposes the eyes to cedar, so your option is to have itchy eyes or overall respiratory problems. I'll take the eyes over lungs any day.

Either way I don't want either of you guys in the urinal next to me, I have no idea what you are up to.

I will try to pull the pics of me a few years ago from the server, I puffed up like a porcupine with cedar. My new regimen is below. Cedar serum (should have started in December or even November) - 15 drops in a glass of water that you sip all day Claritin-type anithistimine (10mg of Loratadine) every morning It's a bitch, but you can power through. I use the antihistamine not only for sinuses but also for skin.

Went to Chicago and gained 6 pounds in 48 hours. That is literally 1 pound every 8 hours INCLUDING WHEN I SLEPT. got home and rode a lot while cutting back on eating. 6 pounds are gone (~4 of it was water weight). that is the key to being healthy, you can go overboard and get back on track quickly. If you are not eating healthy it is harder to recover.

So many people think that they can eat with impunity because they did a big ride. Any one of those things in the video would have been fine, but piling them all on is a problem. The biggest misconception however is the raw idea of "calories in < calories out" as the way to lose weight. Yeeeeeessssss, this is *technically* true but there is another element on top of that. GOOD calories are way better for you than bad calories. If you burn 1200 calories on a ride and then eat a 1000 calorie piece of chocolate cake you are worse off than if you ate a 1000 calorie salad. Technically both will give you a net reduction in calories (which is good) but the lack of nutrition in the cake will not really help you. Additionally, all of the carbs in the cake will leave you hungry for more in another hour, fat and protein will hold you over. Yeah, I'm the guy that often drinks a beer or two after a ride, but I am very disciplined the rest of the day. The content of the calories is just as important, if not more important, than the raw number of calories.

And rental cars in Paris? Definitely overpay for their coverage. Learned the hard way that the Amex coverage does not cover tires and BMW M-class tires are expensive and must be bought in pairs 😉