I drive around all day as part of my job too, but I don't seem to have this craving for something in the car with me. Perhaps a good start would be to get fast food that's at least a little better for you?

Personally, I'm completely addicted to the Swiss Oatmeal at Corner Bakery. It has some sugar in it, but the oatmeal fills me up for much of the day. For lunch type foods, it sounds cliche but I'll stop at Subway for a relatively low-calorie sandwich (I just can't stand the "Subway smell").

Yeah, I was going to suggest sandwiches as a good lunchtime selection. Bread, vegetables, and a little meat and/or cheese makes for a good variety of long- and short-chain carbs, proteins, and fats, as long as you avoid mayo (that's a huge number of calories for something that doesn't fill you up at all), and try to avoid high-salt items, like many processed meats, and, notably, pickles.

I've had some dehydration (or perhaps more accurately, heat stroke) issues, and the solution was to aggressively hydrate (when I run, I wear a fanny pack that holsters a bicycle-style water bottle) and to have Gatorade as part of the mix (usually about 50/50 with water). The extra gunk in Gatorade makes a serious difference.

What I've observed, thanks to a heart rate monitor I use while jogging, is that I have to carefully control my heartrate when running. If I keep it under 170bpm for the whole run, I'll be fine afterward. If I let it creep up into the 180's, I'll be a zombie for hours afterward. That's what actually pushed me to run less and swim more, since the pool represents a giant heat sink. I can push a lot harder at a lower heart rate. Toward that end, you may find that swimming lets you work out without the dehydration issues. (I've seen some hardcore swimmers who also keep a water bottle on the side of the pool, since you do still sweat and you don't particularly want to drink the pool water.)

I suspect my issue is dehydration plus hyponatremia as a result of heat stroke. I know that I get dehydrated, because that's what the docs at the ER always say. And the nurses, as they struggle to find a vein for the IV.

But I also get the nausea and jitteriness associated with hyponatremia. I suspect that I sweat so much that I cannot realistically replenish it by drinking water, but that the water also dilutes my electrolytes significantly.

I was going to say that I can't drink Gatorade because of the corn syrup, at least not frequently, but then I remembered that they used to sell it as a powder, which couldn't possibly be sweetened with corn syrup. Turns out they still do, and they also sell a "natural" version that doesn't have corn syrup. (Probably; they don't have the ingredients list online.) So that's something to consider.

Swimming as a way to control heat is a good point, too. That's something I hadn't considered.

Matt, I think you have an open quote tag or two...


Bitt, I'm also a non-HFCS (or "corn sugars," as they're lobbying to be called now), so Gatorade has been out of the question for me. I didn't know they had a "natural" version, but I'll have to look for it now. The last time I was sick I just had to get some Gatorade, and it was just way to sugary...

Yeah, I'm pretty much a wus there. I rode early morning a month ago at ~35 degrees Fahrenheit @ 10,000 ft. I could have used some extra layers then. I'll have to try to find some warm clothing that will work well on the bike. The upper body is easy to layer, but the legs are harder without affecting your sitting.

Matt, have you tried Powerade Zero? It uses sucralose rather than HFCS. It doesn't seem nearly as sweet to me. Or there is smartwater. Way overpriced IMO, but with no sweeteners, and added electrolytes it may be a good solution for you.

When we're talking about something you drink while exercising, I don't want an artificial sweetener. I want the real deal, since those sugars are actually helpful energy for you to burn.

Buy the powdered mix. It uses real sugar. As a bonus, you'll be reducing the number of plastic bottles you discard/recycle, too!

Sounds good to me. I'll start getting that stuff.

I just wanted to alert you to one trouble area that always sneaks in on me. There's one particular component of foods that I always get thrown by and that's sodium.

In the store it's pretty easy: usually if it has any type of sauce, it has a TON of sodium. Again, the stuff in the middle of the store. I've completely avoided frozen dinners for years now because of this, as well as ramen and the like. Sadly, every once and a while I revert to being 10 years old and just have to have Kraft Mac n Cheese

But when I'm out to eat, sometimes sodium levels are deceptive. This, Matt, is where I wanted to mention that you should check Taco Bell's nutrition page. A few of the Fresco items are okay (like a couple of the chalupas, oddly), but it depends on how many of them you get. But their salads are friggin' loaded with sodium, like 1100-1350mg of it, which is right around half the daily value.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure you check the nutrition of stuff you think you're going to eat regularly. I've found that to be pretty helpful for myself. For example, the Swiss Oatmeal is fairly low in everything but sugars, which could be better. But I'm getting a good amount of fiber.

That's a good tip thanks ! I guess i'm not really worried about that too much yet. Pretty much all the manufactured foods have too much sodium. I drink diet Coke too I know that is high in sodium. Right now I am just trying to get my pants looser

I pretty much get number 8 fresco. (three tacos) I know I could bring my own food and do better but not working in an office makes it harder to do that.